Where Have All The Teachers Gone
The Big Question when it comes to matters educational is whether the present government education system can be reformed. Our simple answer to this Big Question is nugatory. The state (socialist) education system is beyond reform. It is non-reformable.
This negative assertion will be regarded by almost everyone as a view held by inhabitants of the lunatic fringe. Of course the government education system can be reformed! It is run by the state after all--and the state has money. Lots of it. It has, in the minds of socialists, an inexhaustible supply of the stuff.
But the hard evidence says otherwise.
The reality is that the State has been unable to reform its own education system through successive changes of Prime Ministers, Ministers of Education, left-wing administrations and right-wing administrations. None have stopped the apparently ineluctable decline of our government education system. This is not a case of left versus right. Both are equally impotent when it comes to reforming the government education system. Will the current reviews make any difference? No. It is a definition of madness, they say, to expect success out of repeating the same causes of failure year after year.
If we look at the assertions now capturing the headlines we will see the same "stuff" all over again. What is wrong with our schools? First up is the alleged "teacher shortage". We are 700, 800, or 1,000 teachers short, they say. The hard truth, however, is that the government education system will always have a teacher shortage.
The NCEA system holds tenaciously to the belief that every child, every pupil in New Zealand can and should graduate with a meritorious qualification from the government education system. That's what NCEA stands for after all: a National Certificate of Educational Achievement. Are our current enrollees part of our nation? Of course they are. Therefore the system should deliver them a certificate of achievement in something. If that "something" does not emerge via the government school system, it has failed.
Consequently, we have seen an explosion in the number of courses and standards. The assumption is that quantity equals quality when it comes to state education. The more educational topics and courses you have, the more likely every student can leave school with a qualification in something or other--and, therefore, the better the system.
Consequently, the national education system is now characterised by too many teachers. There are far too many teachers engaged in teaching an ever expanded plethora of subjects and subject standards. And given the expansion of standards, this is unlikely to change. Why? Educational success is defined as getting a qualification in something, which in turn requires lowering of standards and expanding out the number of subjects in which a qualification can be issued. Naturally this requires more teachers and more support staff.
A second reason why schools report they are short-staffed is the number of social functions they are required to perform. These social functions are expected to "pick up" from where parents and families have failed.
Has there been an increase in youth suicide? Yes. Who or what can fix this? The "natural" agency is the state education system. Increasingly the state school system is expected to function as the uber-parent. In this role it is doomed to fail. Not only can it never be funded adequately to perform such an onerous responsibility, schools are simply not fit for purpose as parental and familial surrogates. Both left and right governments have failed to face up to this limitation with honesty. Instead, they have continued to promulgate the notion that social failings at the family and basic community level can be compensated for and overcome via the government school system.
For these reasons, the government education system will always be in crisis. It is the only thing that it will perpetually succeed at.
Underneath all this is a matter of religious faith. The government education system is, by profession and declaration, a secular system. Secularism is one of its ultimate beliefs. We cannot see any change in our established religion of secularism for at least another two or three generations. What we can see, however, is the government education system breaking apart from within.
We expect that the government education system will become progressively Balkanized. For Christians and Christian educators, this will provide, we hope and expect, a growing opportunity for a return to a Christian schooling system--both for Christians and those who respect them.
It was when all other cures had failed Naaman the Syrian, he was prepared to listen to his Israelite slave girl, and make his way to the prophet Elisha, to be healed.
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