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“The last two scheduled meetings of the Curriculum Voices group – a group of key stakeholder representatives for guidance and feedback on changes to the national curriculum – have been cancelled with no reason given. The Professional Advisory Group to the Minister on NCEA, a representative group of extremely experienced teachers and principals, has been disbanded with new members to be selected by the Minister.

“We also understand that the Ministerial Advisory Group, set up by the Minister late last year to advise her on Mathematics and English curriculum learning areas, literacy and the draft Common Practice Model, has completed its work. However, there has been no consultation on the group’s report and it hasn’t been released publicly.”

Chris Abercrombie said subject associations, whose members dedicate huge amounts of time and effort to work on the national curriculum, are not being consulted on what is happening or planned. “When they have expressed concerns to the Minister, they are not even being acknowledged, let alone given a response.  

“I was deeply disappointed and concerned that the first time the president of the NZ Association of Teachers of English learned there was a group rewriting the English curriculum was when she was contacted by the media. For a Minister who claims to have great admiration and respect for teachers, choosing not to consult with the head of English subject specialist teachers about such a critical development, speaks volumes. If this is how the Minister intends to treat the sector, we are in for some torrid times.

“We have checked with other subject associations to see if they have been contacted about their curriculum rewrites and they have not – notably Mathematics, another subject that was under the scope of the Ministerial Advisory Group.

“Secondary teachers are passionate about their subjects, how they teach those subjects, and emerging effective practice in their fields. We are extremely concerned that if the Minister shuts teachers out of the change process, she risks being misled by people who hold views about education that are very much on the fringe and not representative of national or international effective practice.

“We have serious concerns about the ability of some of these people to provide sound advice on national curriculum matters. They do not have recent teaching experience and they represent a tiny minority of conservative educationalists who want to take schools back to the last century, rather than equipping them to meet the educational needs of current and future generations.

“Not releasing the report of her Ministerial Advisory Group risks the Minister being misled about current teaching practices in secondary schools and the strength of the evidence for what is being put in front of her.  We call on the Minister to have the courage of her convictions and publicly release the report.”

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“We were promised  a lot by the Minister and our expectations were pretty high in terms of more funding, for example, for schools’ operation grants and professional learning and development for secondary teachers.  That has not eventuated. Increases to school operations grants, for instance, are below inflation, leaving them worse off in real terms.

“For a government that claims that one of its top priorities is education, today’s Budget is a big let down – particularly in the face of significant roll increases due to increases in immigration. 

“The highlight of the Education announcements is property, which is necessary, but it is people who are the most important investment in education.”

“There is nothing significant for improving school attendance when we have significant work to do to re-engage students who have not attended school regularly as a result of COVID.” 

“Teachers need professional learning and development to ensure they can be culturally responsive in their teaching and develop the use of te reo and tikanga Māori. Schools can’t do this on their own, the government needs to support them to meet their obligations under Te Tiriti.”

Chris Abercrombie said the Budget further demonstrated that Aotearoa New Zealand cannot afford charter schools. “Funnelling $153 million into an unproven experiment at a time when the government cannot even ensure that schools’ operations grants can keep up with inflation is irresponsbile – and immoral.

“Despite the Minister promising that funding will be the same for charter schools as state schools, the budget announcement that charter schools will have access to the funding for period products in schools shows that this is false.

“Kiwi Mums and Dads expect their hard earned tax to be spent on ensuring their children receive a quality education at their local school. The vast majority of Kiwi parents send their children to state schools and would far prefer that they be funded and resourced fully rather than setting up a separate system, funded by taxpayers, but are neither required to teach the national curriculum nor hire only registered and trained teachers.

“The Finance Minister and Prime Minister both promised a Budget dedicated to more funding for frontline services – secondary schools are one of the key frontline services in our country and we have been let down badly today.”

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“Cabinet’s decision to allow charter schools to have access to the same level of teaching resources as state schools, is an acknowledgement that the charter school model of state-funded private schools is unworkable.

“Charter schools are being sold on a model of bespoke, bulk funded, flexibility. However, as we know, this is not possible, especially when it comes to supporting students with additional needs. By allowing charter schools to have access to state specialist services such as resource teachers, they are admitting that the charter school system can’t work and that it needs to be able to cannibalise off the public functions of state education to provide some semblance of effective support for students.

“We saw this with allowing access to period products in schools as well. Unless charter schools are going to be charged for it, it’s an invisible increase to their cost, which is already higher than the state system. The Government is trying to patch up a model that doesn’t work, before it has even started.

“It increasingly looks like things are being made up as this process is rushed along, to shore up failings in the model and to protect private sponsors from the actual costs of meeting student needs, instead passing these costs back to the state. This will inevitably mean less funding for the needs of students in the state school system.”

Chris Abercrombie said the Cabinet’s decision to not allow unions to negotiate multi-employer collective agreements for charter schools staff, was a significant departure from New Zealand’s current employment law.

“No school is an island – evidence shows that schools do better when they don’t compete. Having core terms and conditions that are consistent across charter schools would be a good thing, not a limitation.

“If people want to run a charter school, then multi-employer collective agreements should be something that they can easily participate in.”

Chris Abercrombie said these last minute changes to proposed legislation showed the weaknesses of trying to introduce massive structural changes to the education sector under urgency.

“This is not how legislation should be made and the Attorney General Hon. Judith Collins has already warned the Prime Minister about the dangers of rushed legislative processes.”

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“The legislation contains far-reaching changes which have very significant implications for school communities. The secrecy around this legislation and the speed at which it is being pushed through shows a disconnect with the realities of busy parents and communities. All families are working incredibly hard during the cost of living crisis, it’s a huge ask to then drop everything to engage in this consultation – but the decisions being made are incredibly important.

“This time around the legislation will not only enable existing local state schools to convert to charter schools, it will also enable the Minister to order an existing state school to convert, and it will enable any single person in the community to propose converting a local state school to a charter school.

“What happens if parents don’t want to send their children to a converted charter school or students don’t want to attend such a school– what rights do they have? Where are the rights of school communities in all of this?”

The proposed legislation also contains drastic changes to the employment conditions of teachers employed at a school that converts to a charter school. “The legislation proposes to completely override teachers’current rights both in employment law and their collective agreement – this is a profound change that, along with the other changes, deserves a decent amount of scrutiny.

“Rather than fast tracking the consultation process, the Government should be rolling out a comprehensive programme letting school communities know what is in store and encouraging them to have their say.”

The Education and Training Amendment Bill, which provides the framework to establish charter schools, had its first reading under urgency today and has been referred to the education and workforce select committee. The select committee has been instructed to report back in early September, allowing approximately eight weeks for the written and oral submission process.

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“We are shocked to see it includes legislating completely over teachers’ rights under employment law and their own employment agreement.”

Usually if public schools merge or close, teachers can access support to relocate to other schools, or are eligible for redundancy type provisions. However, this legislation proposes that if a public school converts to a charter school, then teachers, principals, and all school employees would be forced to either transfer to the new charter school – or resign.

This is despite charter schools having stark differences to state schools. For example, charter schools will not be required to employ trained and registered teachers or teach the New Zealand Curriculum or provide a New Zealand qualification. 

“Effectively the Government is seeking to strong-arm teachers into charter schools. Associate Education Minister David Seymour has said repeatedly that teachers will want to teach in charter schools. Why then remove the provisions that protect teachers’ choice to opt out of a conversion with dignity and keep our valuable teachers in the state school teaching workforce?”

Chris Abercrombie said there was no proof that charter schools were successful when they were introduced last time – and the fact that all of them, bar one, have been reintegrated into the state school system showed they were an unnecessary experiment.

“There is nothing charter schools claim to do that can’t be done in a local state school, given the resources and political commitment. The only thing charter schools have been proven to do is to open the door to the privatisation of our education system by enabling businesses to come in and run schools for a profit.

“New Zealanders want their local schools to be community assets, run by local representatives – not commercial conglomerates. The $153 million being poured into the charter school experiment could – and should – be put to far better use in our local state schools.”

Last modified on Tuesday, 25 June 2024 12:39