Govt needs to explain teacher effectiveness figure

new-zealand-national-party

Thu Oct 11 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Govt needs to explain teacher effectiveness figure

Thursday, 11 October 2007, 10:57 am
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

Katherine Rich MP
National Party Education Spokeswoman

11 October 2007

Govt needs to explain teacher effectiveness figures

Some of the most important subjects at school are not being taught effectively according to a new report, says National’s Education spokeswoman, Katherine Rich.

“The 2006 New Zealand Schools report states that, though 46% of teachers were effective in some areas of teaching writing, 13% were not effective at teaching the subject.

“A similar finding was revealed for maths. The report says 40% of teachers were effective at teaching some parts of that subject, but 9% were not effective in teaching the subject.

“The situation gets worse for social studies, with the report citing that only one fifth of teachers were effective at teaching the subject but the majority, 63%, were only effective in some areas.

“These are basic subjects and ones that parents would rightly expect to be taught effectively by all teachers.

“The Minister has said ‘Effective teaching is a key influence on student learning and achievement outcomes.’ If that’s the case he needs to explain to parents what the impact of these revelations are for their children and, specifically, what he’s doing about assisting some teachers to improve their skills.

“With nearly 10,000 students leaving school last year without basic literacy and numeracy standards, these findings about teacher effectiveness in the classroom should be of concern.

“Steve Maharey is happy to ‘die in a ditch’ over who owns school buildings. I would suggest our students would be better served if he offered to ‘die in a ditch’ over students’ literacy, schools going broke, and teacher quality.”

Ends

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