Fast forward for secondary education

Media Release

Tuesday 14 August 2007

Fast forward for secondary education

Concern over the government’s lack of vision in secondary education has prompted PPTA to release its own plan for secondary education today.

The plan is centred around a well resourced and high quality network of public schools led by highly trained and qualified teachers able to bring out students’ talent and potential and inspire them to life-long learning.

It is detailed in a paper on the future of secondary education that will be debated at the Association’s annual conference next month.

PPTA president Robin Duff said the Association envisaged a future in which there would be broad political and public agreement on the value to society of high quality public education.

Schools and teachers would be seen as valued community resources staffed with sufficient highly trained and qualified teachers and other professionals.

“The Association views learning as a life-long and social activity underpinned by high quality teaching and school leadership within an education system that values equity of access for all students and cooperation between schools.

Mr Duff said the paper encapsulated PPTA’s longstanding aspiration for the professional role of secondary teachers who would be highly qualified specialists on entry to the profession, willing and able to continue learning, highly versatile in their teaching practice and able to make connections for students.

“It goes without saying that the emphasis in the future will be on personalised learning for all students, but that won’t happen without extra staffing from the government to reduce class sizes so teachers have more time for every student.”

Mr Duff noted that the government had released a 10-point plan in health last week, but said there were no signs the government had a similar vision for secondary education.

“PPTA based its Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement claim around a long term vision set by a Ministerial Taskforce in 2003 to address critical professional issues.

“The Govt says it wants effective teaching and strong professional leadership yet will do nothing to reduce class size, nothing to support middle and senior management properly and nothing to help teachers undertake professional learning.”

ENDS

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