The education system in New Zealand is always packed with stories and news and this month is no different. We will now cover some of the up-to-date stories, which have made the headlines this month in the field of education.
Climate Change
Climate change continues to be a contentious issue. We need to reduce our carbon footprint and pollution, in general, is also making the headlines. Young students are very interested in the subject of climate change but in New Zealand it is not part of the national curriculum in schools. This is causing students to want to make their opinions known to the government by protest. It is argued that climate change should be a subject on its own in schools and should therefore be taught as a subject. Nobody is arguing that the core subjects, which have always been taught, should be removed, but that the addition of climate change as a subject would help young people to understand the impact the environment is having as we continue to pollute the environment. Teachers believe that students need to learn meaningful and interesting things whilst at school, so the fact that climate change is such a contentious issue means that it is a vital aspect that needs to be looked at in New Zealand’s schools. Information about climate change will help them with future studies as they enter adulthood.
Special Needs
Special needs in education has come a long way in recent years, however, it is argued by some psychologists that children with ME/CFS are falling behind in New Zealand’s education system. Chronic illness affects 20,000 New Zealanders, which leads to a large number of school children that are teenagers are taking time off because their needs are not being met. A lot of the recent issues could be down to funding and some of it could simply be down to a lack of understanding by the education system itself. If the system does not understand the need properly, it will not know how to then bring it up to date to ensure that these students do not fall behind others in their class.
Striking Teachers
Teachers striking have been making the headlines for some time now, as teachers are concerned about their pay and conditions. There have been a number of occasions where teachers and teachers’ unions want better pay and conditions from the government. However the government does not have enough money to sustain this. However, the strike has now been averted and teachers have accepted the latest pay offer made by the government. This now means that a secondary teacher’s salary will top $90,000 and a lump sum of $1500 for union members. The strike action was deferred because the pay deal was acceptable to secondary school teachers and unions, which allowed teachers to return to work. This is a positive forward in the education system.
Birthdate Influencing Education
A story that broke this month was a study that said your date of birth could determine your academic achievements at school. The University of Canberra did a study that found that children born in June scored better results than those children born between the months of June and December. They were found to be more educationally bright than those born in other months. Although this survey and research is not conclusive, there is some evidence to suggest that there could be some truth in it. It has long been argued that children who are the eldest an academic year perform better than those at the younger end. The reason for this is developmental and obviously when a child is born in the younger end of an academic year, they will take longer to develop to the same level as a person born earlier.
Government Minister Refuses Meeting
Education minister Chris Hopkins has refused a crisis meeting with the ECE group. There has been a stark amount of underfunding in the early childhood settings in New Zealand for some time now and the people that run the settings believe that it is at crisis point and have requested a meeting with Chris Hopkins. Many staff members who work in childcare and early childhood settings believe that there is no light at the end of the tunnel and they require a lot more funding for them to be able to work effectively with young children. Day care centres also need to have the same level of investment as mainstream schools which teach older children. A preschool music lesson is sought after but not always available. This seems to be a breakdown in communication between the government and local settings, which is not going to be very good going forward.
Poverty in Children
Across the world, child poverty is something that needs to be addressed, however, the data statistics from the United Nations have identified that a lot of countries have now improved the outlook for poorer children. Education is the key in a lot of third world countries and the way these changes are embraced help to educate the young. Even domestic cases of child poverty have improved with more children now getting access to the education they deserve. 40% of the world’s poorest nations have improved quicker than ever before.
As you can see there have been a number of stories this month in the field of education, covering a wide area of topics, from climate change and students, right through to secondary school teachers getting a pay rise. Education is a powerful tool but it is clear to see from the above stories that there are still some challenges ahead that face the entire world, not just New Zealand, when it comes to education.