Massey University is putting its own financial needs ahead of the needs of the education sector following its decision to scrap all undergraduate teacher education.
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Massey University is putting its own financial needs ahead of the needs of the education sector following its decision to scrap all undergraduate teacher education.
 
The University has just announced that it is cutting its three-year Bachelor of Education Early Years degree and the four-year bachelor of Education Primary.
 
NZEI Te Riu Roa opposed the move last year when it was first discussed. The organisation's site representative at Massey University, Sarah Thomas says clearly the education sector has not been listened to.
 
"The university is doing what is best for itself, and is not acting in the best interests of the education sector or in the interests of quality education."
 
Ms Thomas says this will erode the choice and quality of teacher training. For many students, the best option is the full undergraduate study course. The only option now open to trainee teachers will be a one-year, graduate diploma.
 
"That simply does not suit everyone.  Some students don't respond well to the pressure-cooker one-year approach."
 
"It will mean students will be pushed through the training and out into the real world before they have gained enough experience to fully prepare them for the demands of the classroom situation and this will have a significant impact on teaching quality."
 
"We are not saying that one course is better than the other, simply that Massey will not be providing another option. And this must have an impact on the overall quality of teacher training."
 
Ms Thomas says the decision is based more on fiscal concerns than on teacher quality.
 
"The decision was made largely because of the Government's reduction in undergraduate funding and the need to secure Performance Based Research Funding."
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The NZEI Re Riu Roa says ensuring the delivery of quality education needs to be the priority in any reshaping of Christchurch's education sector.
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The NZEI Re Riu Roa says ensuring the delivery of quality education needs to be the priority in any reshaping of Christchurch's education sector.
 
National President, Ian Leckie says it’s imperative to keep children's education at the forefront of any changes to the way education is delivered in Christchurch.
 
Mr Leckie says the NZEI Re Riu Roa will be closely scrutinizing the Ministry of Education and Tertiary Education Commission report 'Directions for Education Renewal in Greater Christchurch' released today to ensure that those principles are being upheld.
 
He says fiscal and political considerations should not dominate over quality education.
 
"We want Canterbury children to have no disadvantage because of the earthquakes.  This is definitely not a time for radical experiments.  Instead it is an opportunity to invest wisely in education, building on the basis of what we know works best," he says.
 
"We also want to ensure that communities are able to continue to be actively involved in their local schools - something that has underpinned our education sector successfully for many years."
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling for better funding and support for early childhood education including a commitment to more qualified teachers and extending paid parental leave to six months.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling for better funding and support for early childhood education including a commitment to more qualified teachers and extending paid parental leave to six months.  

The global goal of ensuring all children get access to early childhood education is under the spotlight this week as part of Education International’s Global Campaign for Education Action week

NZEI National Executive member, Hayley Whitaker says the right of every New Zealand child to free quality early childhood education needs to be an underpinning principle of our education system.
 
"While Governments around the world are being asked promote investment in early childhood education, in New Zealand we are calling for a specific commitment to 100 percent qualified teachers in our kindergartens and early childhood services by 2016 as well as a specific set of targets for an improvement in the teacher-child ratio".

Specifically those targets are one fully qualified teacher for every eight children aged two and over by 2015 and by 2017, a 1:3 ratio for under twos.

"As a country, New Zealand is seriously under-investing in early childhood education," she says.  

"Early childhood education is central to ensuring young children's rights and is also a good investment for individual and national development," she says.

"We know that access to good quality early childhood education can break the cycle of inequity faced by many children and their families and can contribute to better health, higher educational achievements and greater success in life," she says.

"It is critical that next month’s Budget goes a significant way towards improving funding and helping to mitigate effects of its 2010 Budget where $400-million was slashed from this area."

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says principals and teachers oppose performance pay linked to student achievement outcomes because evidence shows this has a negative impact on quality teaching and children's learning.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says principals and teachers oppose performance pay linked to student achievement outcomes because evidence shows this has a negative impact on quality teaching and children’s learning.

NZEI President Ian Leckie said performance pay for teachers overseas was generally linked to student test results because it was seen to be more "objective" than principal or Board appraisals.  However, recent US research [1] shows that judging teacher effectiveness based on gains in students' test scores resulted in one in three teachers being mis-identified. This was because of the large margin of error in test results and the wide variability in ability of students in any one class.

Performance pay systems resulted in teachers competing with each other, distorting learning by "teaching to the test" and putting test results ahead of a child's well-being and overall learning potential.

"Teaching is a job where people need to work together. Performance pay would result in competition between teachers that would be unhealthy for kids," Mr Leckie says.

"What we want is a pay system that keeps our best teachers in the class room and that recognises their skills, knowledge and expertise in a fair and professional way. We want to focus on recruiting the best teachers we can, keeping them learning throughout their careers, and making sure teaching is seen as a highly valued job."

"New Zealand teachers are always ambitious to do better, and relative to other western countries, we spend less on teachers and get more 'bang for our buck' with our world-leading student results in international surveys like PISA."

He said as with any profession, the pay system for teachers needed to be built in partnership with Government and communities with the primary aim of supporting high quality teaching and learning.

[1] Error Rates in Measuring Teacher and School Performance Based on Student Test Score Gains (National Council for Education and the Economy report, 2010, USA).

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is asking why Treasury is trying to call the shots in education and says it needs to stick to its knitting.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is asking why Treasury is trying to call the shots in education and says it needs to stick to its knitting.
Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf is singling out student achievement and teacher quality and performance as the key to the country's success.  He says what’s needed is more investment in teachers, better measures to reward them and more robust career progression.
He is also repeating earlier Treasury advice around increasing class sizes and student-teacher ratios in a bid to free up money in education.
NZEI is questioning what expertise Treasury has in trying to shape educational policy.
"It is well known and I think most people would agree that while teacher quality is very important, teacher quality alone cannot raise student achievement as Mr Makhlouf is arguing," says NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter.
There are a range of factors which affect student achievement.  New Zealand researcher John Hattie says a child's educational achievement is most closely linked to parental hopes and expectations.
"Treasury would be better to focus on economic solutions to child poverty and inequality.  It needs to be looking at how we can ensure children are well fed, well housed and well-clothed so that they are in a position to get the most out of their learning," Mr Goulter says.
NZEI says teachers want to be involved in making New Zealand's top performing system even better and ensuring that New Zealand has the highest quality teachers.
"To do that the government needs to listen and take advice from those at the chalkface about how best to build and maintain a quality teaching workforce and raise student achievement.  It would be disappointing to see Treasury being relied upon as the experts in education".
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Suggestions from the Minister of Social Development that babysitting clubs could be set up to look after the children of beneficiaries, show a complete disregard for young children and their families, says the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.
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Suggestions from the Minister of Social Development that babysitting clubs could be set up to look after the children of beneficiaries, show a complete disregard for young children and their families, says the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.

A Cabinet paper from Paula Bennett suggests establishing babysitting networks as a way of helping beneficiaries with children back into work.  Ms Bennett also says that formal early childcare education is not always the best way for children to be looked after.

"Those attitudes belong back in the ark, along with the government's whole welfare reform agenda," says NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker.

There is strong evidence and it is widely accepted that quality early childhood education forms the foundation for all future learning and provides the essential social and developmental skills children need.

"That means environments where there are qualified teachers who are specialists in child development and early childhood education, good teacher-child ratios and small group sizes," Ms Whitaker says.

“Qualified teachers are also pivotal in helping children and families settle into childcare and reducing any stress they may face”.

Recent reports from the ECE Taskforce and the Children’s Commission have highlighted the importance of early childhood education, saying it is one of the most important investments that a country can make.

Hayley Whitaker says "to see the Social Development Minister advocating informal babysitting networks for children is disappointing to say the least.  It reflects an outdated attitude and completely disregards the needs of children and their families, not to mention the value of early childhood education".

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says International Women's Day is a good time to highlight the government’s shameful record on pay and employment equity.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says International Women's Day is a good time to highlight the government’s shameful record on pay and employment equity.

Latest figures show the gender pay gap has increased. The Quarterly Employment Survey figures show that the gender pay gap for the final quarter last year was 13%, an increase from 12.85% in the September quarter.

NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says that is clearly the result of the government's lack of commitment on pay and employment equity.

When it took office three years ago the government scrapped the pay and employment equity unit within the Department of Labour and halted further pay and employment investigations.

"It has also systematically ignored evidence of institutional pay inequity within education," Mr Goulter says.

A completed pay investigation involving around 800 Ministry of Education support workers who work with special needs children, found they are significantly underpaid when compared to male workers in other sectors who have similar skills levels and responsibilities.  

Other pay and employment equity investigations in education have also shown areas where women employees are not being treated fairly or are being discriminated against in terms of pay, career advancement and the value of their work.

Mr Goulter says "it’s frustrating that despite firm evidence of institutional gender discrimination, no action has been taken on these issues and women continue to be denied the opportunities they deserve".

NZEI continues to call on the government to show some real commitment to closing the gender pay gap, and ensure all women workers are treated fairly and equally.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all government decision-making and policy should be subject to the "is it good for children?" test.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all government decision-making and policy should be subject to the "is it good for children?" test.
 
NZEI’s submission to the Green Paper on Vulnerable Children calls on the government to consider the development and resourcing of an effective legislated action plan to benefit all New Zealand children and help those at risk of abuse and neglect.
 
According to a report released last year New Zealand has one of the lowest levels of public investment in children and young people, ranking 28 of 30 OECD nations.
 
"If we really want to protect all our children and give them the opportunities they deserve, New Zealand’s total investment in its children and young people must be increased," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.
 
“That means any proposed legislative cap on government spending should explicitly exclude spending on the health, welfare and education of children. More investment in all our children now will save money in the future”.
 
"The government has said no new money will be spent on this action plan for vulnerable children, but we don't want to see a rob Peter to pay Paul approach whereby funding would be removed from existing child services to fund targeted services. Targetting children who are already vulnerable does not prevent other children from becoming vulnerable or being put at risk," he says.
 
NZEI supports a proposal in the Green Paper to establish a Minister for Children and while it favours mandatory reporting of child abuse, it would want to see some robust processes and professional development regarding information-sharing and reporting to help guide teachers.
 
"The health, welfare and education of all our children must be at the top of the government's priority list.  An action plan for vulnerable children needs to be a part of a wider commitment to all New Zealand children which is not dictated by fiscal constraint," says Mr Leckie.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the latest OECD education report shows New Zealand has a top performing education system but warns government policies could be counter-productive to that success.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the latest OECD education report shows New Zealand has a top performing education system but warns government policies could be counter-productive to that success.

The ‘Does Money Buy Strong Performance in PISA’ report looks at the relationship between expenditure in education and results in PISA, across dozens of countries.  It singles out New Zealand by saying it is a top performer despite spending less than average per student.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says it is good to see the government welcoming this report and finally acknowledging New Zealand as a top performing system.

“But New Zealand teachers are always ambitious to do better, and with more resources we could lead the world.  This report shouldn’t be seen an excuse to stop making further investment in education or to justify cuts or money-saving measures, he says.

“We should step up investment in the areas that we know return the best investment - in early childhood education, where research shows there is a $17 return on every $1 spent, supporting quality teaching and keeping class sizes, especially for new entrants, as low as we can so that teachers can provide the individual feedback to children that is important for learning.

This report should not be used as an opportunity to adopt Treasury’s misguided advice about increasing class size in order to free up money in education or for further experiments with charter schools and league tables”.

The report stresses that top-performing countries in PISA do not group students in terms of ability or separate out poor performers.

“Unfortunately that is the road National Standards and charter schools risk taking us down,” says Mr Leckie.

“They encourage the labeling of children and can lead to segregated learning environments both in the classroom and within the wider community.  None of that equates to improved student achievement or teacher quality”.

NZEI says it is also significant that the OECD report strongly links high performing countries with greater investment in teachers and giving them greater professional status.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa hopes two new working groups on early childhood education will deliver a strong message to the government to restore funding levels and commit to a fully qualified teaching workforce.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa hopes two new working groups on early childhood education will deliver a strong message to the government to restore funding levels and commit to a fully qualified teaching workforce.

Following on from last year's ECE Taskforce report the government has announced the establishment of two working groups which will focus on improving the quality of early childhood education for young children.

NZEI says the evidence is clear about what factors contribute to quality in early childhood education but a lot has happened over the past three years to undermine that.

Millions of dollars of funding has been cut to more than 2,000 ECE services, the target for having 100% qualified teachers has been abandoned, professional development for early childhood teachers has been cut, and licensing requirements were changed pushing up the maximum centre size from 50 to 150 child places.

NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker says "those are all things which have worked to reduce quality early childhood education and should be at the top of the list for the advisory groups to address".

"Quality early childhood education means environments where there are 100% qualified teachers including for under-2s, good teacher-child ratios and small group sizes.  The ECE Taskforce recognised and identified this very clearly," she says.

Hayley Whitaker says "we also don’t want to see services which already have 100% qualified staff continue to be punished by cuts to their funding.  Those cuts only serve to push up the cost of early childhood education to families, and put up barriers to children's participation."

NZEI says there is a lot of experience and expertise on the advisory groups and it's good to see a cross sector approach being taken. It looks forward to seeing recommendations from the groups when they report back to the government in April.
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