PISA findings another indication of Govt education failure

PISA findings - another indication of Government education failure

New Zealand will continue to plunge in student achievement results if the government continues its failed education policies, says NZEI National President Judith Nowotarski.

She says it is extremely worrying that the Minister of Education Hekia Parata is still insisting that her government’s policies are right.

“The OECD PISA results are just the latest in a series of findings in recent weeks that show that the government has been heading in the wrong direction for the past five years.”

Ms Nowotarski says there are a number of issues facing schools in New Zealand.

“Growing inequity and long term poverty have a big impact on student achievement. The government’s current path will lead directly to greater inequality and to fewer children succeeding in education. The PISA results should be a serious warning that we need to change direction, and quickly.”

In releasing the PISA findings, OECD deputy education director Andreas Scheicher admitted that choice and competition have not lifted student performance in countries that have adopted that approach, such as the UK.

“So why would these policies work here?”

“What’s important in education is equity and teaching quality. Yet for the past five years, teachers have been starved of professional development while the government has focussed on unnecessary and irrelevant data collection.

“It’s time that the government addresses the real concerns in education.

“It needs to reverse our fast-growing inequity instead of increasing private school subsidies. It needs to support teachers improve the quality of teaching instead of allowing unqualified and unregistered people to teach at taxpayer-funded charter schools.

“It’s now time for the government to listen to educators rather than ideologues and to look at what really works for all students. It needs to stop experimenting with our education system and provide opportunities for all children instead of using it as another opportunity for private sector profits.”

ENDS

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