NZ Centre for Political Research

This week's poll asks:

Do you support the publication of National Standards data?

*Very much so, even though it is only the first year, the data is crude, & produced largely unwillingly. It should be seen as the first shot in a, necessary, campaign to break the stranglehold of (teachers) unions & academia on education - a sinister (left-hand) stranglehold built up over the last 4 decades. Why shouldn't teachers be evaluated, held accountable, paid according to evaluated worth/merit, exactly the same as the rest of us? In my day it was said, "if you can't do it, then you go & teach it". In spades, doubled, these days. Dave

*Yes with the comment that 5 year olds should not be included in this list..it should be at age 6..when some knowledge should have taken place in their brains! Jane

*1. But only for the Private consumption of Pupils,Parents, Teachers and Authorities.
2. There must be National Standards to progress Education. Frederick

*Let us be open to standards of the different schools. Brian

This week's poll asks:

Do you support the publication of National Standards data?

*I can't see that there is a problem with national standards data being published. Neil

*Both our lead writers make excellent points in their comments on the way our education system should progress. The National Standards should clearly state the knowledge and skills that our children should be acquiring. The attainment of these should be given absolute priority. Ignore the bleating of "teaching to the test" from some quarters. Teachers should be teaching to the necessary knowledge and skills. In addition schools should look at the additional needs of the pupils under their care and add additional priority skills if necessary. At the same time the Ministry standards should not be set in stone. I would be in favour of allowing schools to develop and publish their own standards, written in Plain English and clearly commented on in reporting to parents. In my opinion at least some of our school attainment problems arise from the so called experts in Wellington fiddling with the curriculum, fixing it when it wasn't broken. Finally I would suggest a nationwide entrance exam before any child was admitted to secondary school. Assessment in Reading, Language and Maths. Primary schools have eight years to get their pupils up to minimum standards. Children with special needs and learning difficulties should have these addressed properly before the children turn up at the gates of the secondary school. Oh yes, publish the pass rates of the Secondary School Admission Test.
It's been too easy for primary schools to shunt their failing pupils onto the secondary system. This is not a case of kicking the primary teachers alone.
The Ministry officials who pretend to help children with special needs but don't actually do so should also be held to account. Denis

*While I support the principle of accountability for one's performance in any job in the case of teachers this should not apply because there are too many variables other than the skill of the teacher and the school environment that can affect the students' results. Publishing league tables of school exam results will merely reinforce the divide between the high and low decile schools and could unfairly disadvantage a large proportion of the more able students in the low decile schools. The wider social implications if this happens are enormous.
It is an unnecessary and potentially damaging step that i vigorously oppose. I hope the powers that be realise this and decide not to do it. John

*Yes to a point. The point being that it seems many of teaching fraternity are more concerned with ideology than with actual teaching. Also the N.Z.school curriculum has to be independently assessed.
Refer the re-writing of NZ history to suit political objectives; and the almost absence of European history.
We must avoid placing the cart before the horse. Brian

*Good to see a few comments from Teachers here, shows the complete lack of reality sense they have, not unlike our Judges, anyone who tries to argue that, what Teachers do cannot be measured, Teachers are the only ones that know what is best for education or that our education system is a top performer is in dreamland, funny how they say performance cannot be measured and then turn around and try to tell us we have a top performing education system when measured against other countries, anyone who has had to employ a recent school leaver will tell you otherwise, and as for having to control a class of unruly kids, weren’t the Teachers complicit in removing responsibility and accountability from kids? Jan

*Education is the No. 1 priority so whatever it takes to get children to read & write in English and do maths well; also to smash the powerful teacher unions holding back and dumbing down our society. Monica

This week's poll asks:

Do you support the publication of National Standards data?

*I personally don't know much about the system apart from what I have read here but agree something has to be established to improve the relationship between the child,school and parent. Mark

*Accountability is essential for improved outcomes. Bruce

*The time is long overdue for reliable assessment of what is taking place in our classrooms. The high percentage of illiteracy and inumeracy in NZ should be a wake up call to all citizens of NZ, not just parents. Bad or poor Teachers need to be identified, as does the sub- standard performance of some schools Boards of Trustees. Bob

*Secrets breed misconceptions! Delwyn

*However that data needs to be accurate and consistent something government agencies seem incapable of. Richard

*It is very hard to get a "national" standard when the marking criteria can be interpreted so differently by different teachers. There is so much more to what goes on in a classroom and children start at such different levels but surely any achievement should be acknowledged. By labeling a child as "well below average" does not help their self esteem in any way. Dianne

*Yes, we are entitled to have this information both as parents and taxpayers. David

*Get rid of all the Education Bureaucracy & send them back to School they need re Teaching, also they have never run a business to employ people & look after them & pay them it is all handed to them. Geoff

*It is obvious! Mick

*Wake up NZ. Steve

*Of course I support the publication of National Standards Results. The teachers union and all the communists who belong to it, are dead scared that their incompetent fellow travellers and their systematic indocrination of the young minds they have access to, will be further revealed. Anything that will enable young minds to find more successful avenues for their development, and the information from National Standards becoming available to their parents, has to be a good thing. Let the sunlight in to reveal the dastardly agenda of the Teachers Union. Not only do they promote left wing ideals they also reinforce the undermining of the family unit and the desecration of our historically successful social fabric. Unless they first unpick the strong family unit we used to have in NZ, they have an uphill battle to indocrinate young minds with subversive material. Wake up people, to the devastation people like the left wing teachers unionists have already wrought on our society. Dianna

This week's poll asks:

Do you support the publication of National Standards data?

*Although I can understand where the unions are coming from, all unions deplore any sort of performance measurement / payment so would naturally be against this irrespective of the benefit to parents and / or the kids. John

*You people make me laugh. This is nothing but preaching to the converted (except for me). Our school system is working well, thank you very much. What is not working is a p#*@ poor portion of our society. These people think plonking their kids in front of a video game is parenting. There is too much boozing (wow we're really sorting that one out) and beating and not enough personal responsibility for reading to your own kids, doing some maths with them or encouraging them to sit down and engage in something constructive. Schools are completely powerless to stem the tide of disrespect for education because parents often side with their ill-disciplined brats when there is an issue at school. Then they get idiots who know nothing about education ranting on about teachers being a problem! I'd love to see you bafoons in front of thirty 13 year olds; good luck! Any school will tell you that they see the same families coming through as perrennial underachievers; the same names year after year. Our issue is not our school system it's our society. El

*Those principals and teachers who protest against a legitimate national benchmark for educational achievement are in denial. What are they afraid of apart from exposing their own weaknesses? Jeff

*International research and experience indicates that these managerial strategies harm children. Make no mistake - that is why Finland has no such thing. sadly whilst it sounds like a good idea to the uninformed - it just isn't. Kelvin

*Everyone, deep down, wants to know how they compare with their peers, in sport, in business, in life generally, and very much so in education. Frank

*This is an important first step in breaking the power of the teachers' union. After a few years of these stats being published the teacher unions' opposition will be seen for what it clearly is -- power over the entire community to ensure they can feather their nests. Victor

*One should be aware of their true position in life - smartens people up. Stuart

*One would hope/wish that all teachers were trained and taught to the very best of their ability. Performance/competency standards and reviews for both the teachers and the schools are essential to ensure that the educational opportunities for our children are monitored, maximized and professionally delivered. Johanna

*Strongly support this & more measurement needed. Josephine

*Every parent's right to know. Sarah

*Every other employer ensures their employees meet a standard – why not in education? It's not too hard! Brother Paul

*Visibility is a wonderful thing. If parents start to choose schools based on performance - Great. Reality time. Graham

*Lets try anything that will help the kids get better educated in spite of the efforts of their teachers who say that they are doing a great job with 20% of children leaving school unable to read and write. Colin

*The standards presently used, do not give a true picture of pupils achievements. Malcolm

*Nothing wrong with seeing what is happening. Hans

*The old addage if you can't measure you can't manage. Peter

*National Standards are a complete waste of tax payers money. Let schools do what they do best and let them do it without the interference of ignorant politicians. Graeme

*And parents need to be educated as to their responsibilities in working with the schools, to enable better results to be possible. Vivian

*Unfortunately, unions have always tried to cover up under performance as it is easier to influence those who have not developed the skills to read and analyse as they are easier to indoctrinate. John

This week's poll asks:

Do you support the publication of National Standards data?

*Teacher unions should pull their heads in and do what they are asked. The media should stop giving them so much air time. Teachers in the union unashamedly flout the law and that sends a dreadful signal to children. Sandra

*Yes, national standards and league tables should be published and schools should be focused on lifting their game - after all it's about the kids not teachers! Sam

*The continual bleat from the school teachers needs to be silenced and the teachers need to realise they are our servants not masters. Ian

*How can you know what you can't measure. Willy

*Yes, the performance of our schools is one of the country's highest concerns. Martin

*Disengaged parents are a major problem for many schools around the country - maybe a contract would be the answer. After all, it sounds like it works well for the Agassi school, although that is clearly one that everyone wants to go to. However, there are lessons here - switch on the parents and kids and the school will do better. Simon