Debate on NZ Teachers Council - Te Ururoa Flavell
te-pati-maori
Wed Jun 15 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Debate on NZ Teachers Council - Te Ururoa Flavell
Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 4:32 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 7:31 PM
Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations, and State Enterprises
Te Ururoa Flavell, Education spokesperson for the Maori Party
Tēnā koe, Mr Chair.
Tēnā tātou katoa. It is good to see us here tonight having a look at Crown entities, in particular, in this case the New Zealand Teachers Council.
Yes, that is right. It is often said in education circles that good teachers are costly but bad teachers cost more. That is what they say The New Zealand Teachers Council is the professional body for all registered teachers working in any teaching situation. It should, theoretically, be the body that distinguishes between the good and the not so good, those who inspire and those who merely tell. The council’s purpose is to provide professional leadership in teaching, to enhance the professional status of teachers in schools and early childhood education, and to contribute to a safe and high-quality teaching and learning environment. Members will understand then that the Māori Party has been interested in looking at the progress achieved by the Teachers Council with a particular focus on Māori education.
Despite some positive trends educational indicators for Māori generally compare poorly with those of the total population Māori still have lower rates of participation at early childhood level, higher truancy rates, and lower mean scores for reading, maths, and scientific literacy. Māori are less likely to stay on at school to the age of 17½ years and are less likely to leave school with high qualifications. What does this tell us about good and bad teachers? Ka Hikitea sums it up: “Educational system performance has been consistently inequitable for Māori learners, fewer teacher-student interactions, less positive feedback, more negative comments targeted to Māori learners, underassessment of capability, widespread targeting of Māori with ineffective teaching strategies, failure to uphold mana Māori, inadvertent teacher racism,” and so on. Those are some of the comments that have been made.
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This is not a Māori Party document; it is the Government’s own publication. It is a Ministry of Education resource that defines issues that impact on teacher credibility and success with Māori. How is it then that we can get to the 2009/10 financial review of the Teachers Council and find that Māori education or Māori students are not even mentioned? How is it that a select committee comprised of Labour, National, ACT, and Māori MPs, including Kelvin Davis, a former school principal, does not appear to have asked even a question about Māori? It does not take much investigation work to find an organisation briefing paper presented to the members of the Education and Science Committee.
This is a two-page paper. It highlights a significant variation between estimated and actual performance in the annual report. I will quote from that source: “I report to identify further research and policy development concerning te reo proficiency required of graduates of Māori medium initial teaching education programmes that was due by March 10 has not been completed.” The question I ask is why, and why was that question not asked by the committee? The financial review’s introductory statement states quite clearly that part of the role of the Teachers Council is to ensure that individual teachers have gained the skills encompassed in teacher education programmes, such as proficiency in te reo and the ability to motivate students. So why not ask what was going on that the Teachers Council did not complete such a vital report? If our own Education and Science Committee do not ask the questions and the Teachers Council does not complete the work then perhaps we need to look elsewhere for robust advice on teacher professional development.
Just last week the Māori Youth Council presented a report to the Minister of Māori Affairs that had three simple recommendations to improve Māori youth success in the education system. It recommended that Government, one, require all secondary school teachers to complete level 1 te reo Māori and Māori education tikanga course at a tertiary institution; two, provide the resources for existing teachers to sit at least level 1 te reo Māori as a part of their professional development and ensure that teachers have the resources to efficiently and effectively deliver on the objectives of Ka Hikitea; and, three, encourage schools to actively strengthen the relationship between teachers and the wider community through hui with iwi or hapū to ensure that schools have the direction, or at least the discretion, to develop programmes that suit the needs of the community. Perhaps these recommendations can be picked up. I close by saying: “they say the art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” I hope that the solid foundation provided by the Māori Youth Council will assist the Teachers Council to discover some of the key skills we believe are required to ensure that all of our children benefit from excellent teaching and quality teachers.
ENDS
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