learning matters (nz)
Monday, March 9, 2009
Politix
So quotes Chris Carter:
Firstly I would struggle to argue that adding extra teachers in a core subject (PE) is luxury spending. Pakuranga College employs extra teachers - in Social Studies, English, Maths and most of the other core subjects. Are these luxury spending also?
Secondly it seems highly anecdotal to quote an example of "fancy" ballet teachers. Again we employ coaches for some of our sports teams, but only in the situation where we are unable to get sufficient unpaid coaches to provide sports. Mr Carter, and other politicians, must admit the different reality of schools these days.
20 years back sports were amateur, and people had more time to give to coaching. With more parents not at home, more economic stress and changed attitudes ... the free support for schools no longer exists. I'm sure the same is true of most charities. To continue delivering the same opportunities in and beyond the classroom, schools must pay more.
And to repeat a overquoted fact ... when will any government finally acknowledge the real cost of ICT?
Schools are underfunded. The model assumes generic, large classes ... with limited scope for (government funded) curriculum or timetabling innovations. And it assumes that high quality co-curricular opportunities will miraculously appear in schools free of charge. These will not appear until the government gets real about school funding.
In the meantime, my fear is a greater exodus to private schools. I have no problem with private schools per se, but am concerned at the long-term polarisation of our community. Parents seek to send their students to schools that are perceived as better and offering more opportunities.
The government has a social obligation to ensure the gap between private and public schools does not continue to grow.
Ah, the freedom of being in opposition. I'm sure Mr Carter thought these thoughts as Minister of Education, but never publicly stated them. Sadly this is a blatant case of anecdotal politicking."To be quite honest that's the problem with the North Shore high schools. They'd all employed extra staff based on their foreign fee-paying students giving them that extra revenue, because ... it's the biggest concentration of high-decile high schools in one area in the country and they're essentially in competition with each other for students.
"So they'd overextended themselves, parental donations were sliding, international student fees were falling - so somebody had to be blamed for the schools employing fancy ballet teachers, fancy swimming teachers, extra PE teachers, extra support for special needs."
Firstly I would struggle to argue that adding extra teachers in a core subject (PE) is luxury spending. Pakuranga College employs extra teachers - in Social Studies, English, Maths and most of the other core subjects. Are these luxury spending also?
Secondly it seems highly anecdotal to quote an example of "fancy" ballet teachers. Again we employ coaches for some of our sports teams, but only in the situation where we are unable to get sufficient unpaid coaches to provide sports. Mr Carter, and other politicians, must admit the different reality of schools these days.
20 years back sports were amateur, and people had more time to give to coaching. With more parents not at home, more economic stress and changed attitudes ... the free support for schools no longer exists. I'm sure the same is true of most charities. To continue delivering the same opportunities in and beyond the classroom, schools must pay more.
And to repeat a overquoted fact ... when will any government finally acknowledge the real cost of ICT?
Schools are underfunded. The model assumes generic, large classes ... with limited scope for (government funded) curriculum or timetabling innovations. And it assumes that high quality co-curricular opportunities will miraculously appear in schools free of charge. These will not appear until the government gets real about school funding.
In the meantime, my fear is a greater exodus to private schools. I have no problem with private schools per se, but am concerned at the long-term polarisation of our community. Parents seek to send their students to schools that are perceived as better and offering more opportunities.
The government has a social obligation to ensure the gap between private and public schools does not continue to grow.
Labels: education, politics, private schools, school funding
posted by learning matters (nz) at 12:14 AM
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