The education sector is always full of stories whether it be childcare provisions, private kindergartens or you’re just searching for the best singing lessons. All these aspects trend month-on-month in the field of education. Let’s now take a look at some of the areas that have been trending this month in education and see if there’s been any developments from last month’s stories.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten teachers’ pay has been in the spotlight yet again as in the past they have been awarded very low or no pay deals to help to increase their income. However, they have now agreed a deal that gives Kindergarten teachers the opportunity to have their wages in line with other educational professionals. The deal was voted for and was given an overwhelming majority vote, including the rise in the minimum wage by 18%. There is also a lump-sum deal in place for union members that will be paid over a three year period. Although the deal has gone some way in helping this sector, there is still a need to address the pay and work conditions across the wider sector of the early years. Most people in this sector agree that although this is the right step forward, further changes are still needed to ensure that this positive step continues.

Disabilities

Most areas of education suffer from underfunding of some description and the need for more funding in each section is always paramount. The same can be said for students with learning difficulties or disabilities. This area needs more funding as there are hundreds of learning support workers that are in classrooms who are just simply not getting paid enough money for the work that they do. Further funding of 30 million dollars has been aimed and provided for children with complex needs. The need is so great that it needs to be put forward rather than simply talking about it at the government level. The learning support action plan that covers 2019 to 2025 has looked at developing areas that need improvement for preschoolers and children of all ages. They are looking at screening tools which will help identify a child’s needs before it is too late and intervention can take place. These kinds of advancement need investments so that educational professionals can do their jobs efficiently.

Maori language

New Zealand has a rich culture and making sure that future generations understand that culture is vitally important. So, teachers are now seeking to boost the teaching of learning about Maori in early years. Children of reception age are not too young to learn about the Maori culture.The belief is that making this teaching available early enough will help children to live in a diverse society which will aid them in later in life.

Education in prisons

Education is vitally important no matter what type of background you are from. Regardless of what age you are, you can always learn something through education. Even people in prison that may have exposed themselves to education in the past could find themselves learning a new skill that actually has some use. Hawkes Bay Prison are using mathematical exercises to help rehabilitate their inmates. So far they’ve managed to achieve a 100% pass rate with the inmates that have taken the course so far. In fact, recently, five inmates have graduated from this new type of teaching. Giving inmates the opportunity to learn something new will help them to pick up new skills and  divert their attention to something new. It’s channelling this type of energy into something positive that could help the whole rehabilitation process. 

Learning in prison is nothing new, but the relative success that this has had shows that this could be a way forward for other inmates. Being able to learn in prison will give inmates a valuable qualification when they are released from prison, making sure that their time spent behind bars was not wasted.

Cannabis

In New Zealand, cannabis related hospitalisations have doubled in the last ten years. The minister of health shows that 192 people were released from hospital in 2008 with cannabis related issues. However, in 2018 this had increased to 505. The cause of this has been looked at by some university professors and the findings have shown that people are now more aware of the side effects of cannabis and this has now been attributed to more cases. The second reason is that jurisdiction has changed which means that more patients have access to cannabis and are freely admitting to the use of it. Finally, there may be a failure when it comes to reporting. It may have been noted that a patient has used cannabis when in actual fact they had used synthetic cannabis. The risk groups related to cannabis have shown that the greatest age risk is between 20 and 24 years of age. It is the case that the use of cannabis does decrease as we age. 

Learning support in schools

Learning support in schools is getting a boost as the minister of education has announced that learning support will be increased in the nations schools. Support to children in more than a thousand schools has already been allocated. Aside of the obvious benefit of additional learning support for the children, this will also really help the workload of the other educational professionals in schools as they will be able to delegate tasks to these supporting members of staff. Some of these staff members will be full time and qualified teachers who will able to help identify learning weaknesses in the classroom setting.  

As you can see we have had a busy month in the field of education. There is clearly a need for more investment into the nation’s schools as the new academic year fast approaches.