EDUCANZ start date looms

By Michelle Curran
Published June 8, 2015

A start date for the professional and regulatory body for teaching, EDUCANZ, has been scheduled for later this year, and its membership announced.

From July 1, 2015, the Education Council Association of New Zealand will replace the NZ Teachers’ Council. It will be ...

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Mike Friend

10 years ago

Any adisory process that does not involve the members having a say in who represents their views is suspect to say the least. To say as Parata does that there are five practicing teachers on the new professional body is a nonesense, since she has chosen them! I am sick an tired of hearing the teaching profession being bagged by politicians whose only first hand experience of the craft has been when they were students themselves. Anyone who believes that education can be improved by paying one sector of the community huge sums of public money per student when compared to the average for all other students, or who believes that whilst state schools are expected to jump through standardised testing, the chosen few can ignore them has no real interest in providing workable solutions. It is time that education is taken out of the political arena and Aotearoa looks to countries where the working model demonstates that real value is placed on the profession and the activity, by vastly improving the financial reward for all educators and by providing adequate quality time to carry out the research and development of best practice models. All else it rhetoric!

A.Johnstone

So we have a new system to represent teachers! We (teachers) have no say (other than the communist model of voting i.e. you can only vote for representative's suggested by the Govt). The reality is that it is not a body that will represent teachers, it is simply an administrative organisation in place to register teachers and be a Govt mouth piece. There will be no genuine critical appraisal of new policies. The people on the board are Govt. appointees after all! My experience, when asking the Teachers Council to comment on issues around educational policy, was that they gave no answer e.g. they had no opinion to give regarding class sizes or teacher training models. They directed anybody asking about such issues to 'research papers'. When pressed to provide 'leadership' or give their 'considered view' they were unable (or unwilling) to do so. I cannot see how an even less accountable organisation (to teachers) will make that situation better or less 'biased'. Remind me again; Who will EDUCANZ represent? The reality is that it is a Govt. organisation paid for by teachers but most certainly not representing teachers. We all know that and so does its current board. If they are seriously suggesting that my assertion is not correct then they (the board) should be making very strong representations to allow teachers to have a real and genuine input into who sits on that board. There is a wonderful story by Hans Christian Anderson called 'The Emperors New clothes'. Seems to fit in this case! Just because the minister says it is so does not make it so and having had to pay into a similar organisation when I was in the UK I would like to know what evidence she (the Minister) has that demonstrates the success of those organisations. I suspect the evidence is as weak as the evidence used to suggest that Charter schools and League tables are effective ways to improve standards. Of course if the minister were to look for real evidence or real examples the Nordic countries are a better fit to the NZ system. In those countries they expect highly qualified teachers and provide well resourced schools (of course you can't do that if taxes are cut). No performance related pay, no league tables, no charter schools. I am not sure what the new organisation thinks about the quality of people working in NZ charter schools. To hold my teacher status I have to be registered. I have to provide evidence etc. It seems you can work in a teaching capacity in a charter school and not be registered! Or perhaps a better option for people in those schools who want some so-called 'legitimate training' would be for them to do a 6 week course at Auckland Uni. and get into schools via that route! For the minister to suggest that we look at the US and the UK for evidence that some of the above policies work is like the All Black coaching team beating a path to the Scottish RFU and asking if they would mind if the ABs used the Scottish system! Why look to systems that have failed and are failing rather than look to those systems that are clearly working and have a proven track record of success. But whatever the strengths (or not) of my arguments about sustainability regarding success in schools please do not describe this new organisation as an organisation set up to represent teachers. Just because a minister and her appointees say that it does; does not make it so. A.Johnstone

EDUCANZ start date looms

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