The Curse of Curriculum Inflation

Get Back to Basics in Schools

Garth George
Rotorua Daily Post
8th March, 2013

I have argued for years that our education system is failing because it does not properly teach the fundamentals upon which all learning is based. Those fundamentals are spelling (reading and writing) and basic mathematics (arithmetic) - the "three Rs".  My argument has lately been validated by two expert educationists, who have pointed to serious failures in primary and secondary schooling - spelling and counting.

We have known for years that far too many young people are leaving secondary school unable to express themselves adequately orally and in writing and, conversely, unable to understand basic oral and written English.  Now we know why. Research reported in this newspaper has found that New Zealand teachers struggle to find time to teach spelling within the curriculum and lack professional knowledge about English language structure.

And, even worse, University of Canterbury senior education lecturer Brigid McNeill, who surveyed 405 primary school teachers from a variety of regions and schools of varying socio-economic status, discovered that "many teachers have reported that their initial teacher education programmes did not provide them with adequate training in this area".

I find this incredible.

Inflating Expectations

Focusing On Everything

New Zealand's retiring Minister of Education, Hekia Parata has made a very valid point on the occasion of her departure.  She criticizes curriculum creep--that incessant appetite and demand for government schools to teach everything from schoolyard marbles to peace studies.  One suppressed premise of this demand is that school time is without limit.  The curriculum creepers assume that time--in particular school time--is elastic, plastic, and without limit.

Here is Parata:

Outgoing Education Minister Hekia Parata says a push for schools to cover all civic and social responsibilities needs to be resisted - saying families and society must step up.  Parata highlighted the issue during an exit interview with the Herald before she steps down from the role on May 1, with Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye expected to take over.

"We should demand a lot from our education system because we have a quality one. But we shouldn't demand everything," Parata said.  "Financial literacy, sex education, bullying - any number of issues - whenever they emerge in the public domain the first response is, 'This should be taught by schools'. I think there needs to be a much fairer shared responsibility here between parents, family, whanau.  [NZ Herald]

We have a never ending river of demand to include more in the curriculum of the government schools.