Latest news with #secondaryeducation
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Mediawatch: Media applauds old school move on NCEA
TVNZ's Simon Dallow with a blunt assessment of NCEA, after the government announced proposals to dump the system. Photo: TVNZ 1 News "Old school grades are set to return," 1 News host Simon Dallow told 6 pm news viewers on Monday evening at the top of the show. Earlier that day, breakfast news shows had been primed for an imminent "massive announcement." As is often the case with government policy announcements, the nation's major newsrooms already knew about it. For them, it was not so much 'breaking news' as lifting the embargo on news the minister's media minders had already given them a heads-up on. It turned out to be abolishing all levels of NCEA - and new national qualifications for secondary school students to be phased in over the next five years. On Sunday, 24 hours before the big reveal, TVNZ's Q+A kicked off with Crimson Education founder Jamie Beaton calling for change in national education culture. "NCEA basically is not a rigourous curriculum. Students graduating often are two years behind in core subjects like maths and science, so there's a massive gap for most New Zealanders," said Beaton, the holder of ten degrees by the age of 30, viewers were told. "There's a real movement against testing and exams, which I think is quite poisonous. And that actually puts us further and further behind, you know, leading education systems like Singapore or Korea or the kind of elite schools in California." But whether underachievers were being held back by NCEA rather than high-achievers was not discussed so much. While some in the media had not expected the complete - albeit staggered - scrapping of NCEA, the New Zealand Herald's political reporter Jamie Ensor wasn't one of them. "It is in line with the government's general position on education," he wrote on Monday . "As far as public opinion goes, it is likely to be popular if parents' confusion with the current system is anything to go by. According to the Education Review Office, about half of parents don't understand it." The same seemed true of most broadcasters and commentators airing their reckons after the announcement. RNZ education correspondent John Gerritsen pointed out on Morning Report that the returning A-E grades were not really a big change. "If you think about it - Achieved, Merit, Excellence - well that's C, B and A. A change in the nomenclature, but that's maybe a little bit easier for parents and so forth to understand." MR's Ingrid Hipkiss admitted she was one of them. She upbraided herself for reverting to what she called "old person-speak," referring to 'the fifth form' and 'School Cert'. But she wasn't the only one that day. For its youth-focussed Now You Know video explainer, The Spinoff deployed an 'old man' to explain - with tongue-in-cheek - that A means good and E is bad. There was plenty more old-mansplaining about NCEA in the media this week. "Along with the mad open classrooms, isn't it fascinating how forward the old days appear to be," ZB's Hosking said on his morning show. "You're going back to the 1980s (when) you couldn't go ahead to the next year until you passed whatever it was you were going for. I took up music in the fifth form because I failed tech drawing in the fourth form," he said. The ability to get some credit, or switch courses before an end-of-year exam failure is a feature of NCEA that might have helped him back in his school days. Later that day, ZB's veteran political correspondent Barry Soper was also more comfortable with what he remembered. "This is going back to what it was in the olden days when I was at school. At least you've got a good yardstick for employers to look at," he told ZB listeners. A yardstick would be a 91.4 cm stick today, but Soper knew in his own mind what students of today need. "We can't have this namby-pamby standard in education where we don't like winners and losers," he told ZB listeners. Across the media there was consensus in commentary that NCEA had not achieved - and actually diffused educational achievement in 20 years since its introduction. "How does this work? It seems to be so broad and so vast and you get bits for this and bits for that. Just give them a foundation to move forward," said Sarah Henry, Are Media editorial director said on the Herald Now show on Monday. She said she had been to parents' meetings and read NCEA literature but was still confused by it. That was music to the ears of panel guest Tim Wilson, the former TVNZ journalist now at the Maxim Institute think tank which has long campaigned for change. "I need to see the education system smarten up. I need to see a reduction in the size of the curriculum and core subjects and standardised tests so I know that our boys are doing well and can continue to do well," the father-of-four said. The Herald Now panel that day all agreed too many students were gaming the system in too many courses for them to count credits. "One I saw the other day was that you must have knowledge of the inner workings of an espresso machine," laughed host Ryan Bridge. But making coffee - and understanding coffee machines - can only generate a few NCEA credits. And, arguably they are more useful skills today than the woodwork and tech drawing that seemed to make middle-aged radio hosts misty-eyed for the clarity of the assessment system of their school days. Scepticism, concern and confusion about NCEA credits and the standards is real. Likewise, concerns about under-educated students turning up in work and university in recent years. Opposition politicians, teachers representatives, school principals and parents all voiced concerns in the media coverage this week. "Mike Hosking loves it. Apparently parents and principals love it. Erica Stanford certainly loves it," Mike Hosking's producer Glenn Hart said on his daily highlights podcast ZBeen last Wednesday]. "I just feel like there's one group of people we haven't talked to about what they want. Oh yeah - the kids, the students. But who cares? Who cares what they think?" he said. A good point well made. TVNZ's 1News did vox pop some school students in their reports. On Tuesday RNZ asked tertiary undergraduates about it. And on Monday, The NZ Herald featured Brynn Pierce, a Year 12 student at Newlands College recently in the news as a Youth Parliament MP. He said NCEA was "overly confusing" for him in his first year, and "vague in terms of course endorsement" afterwards. Meanwhile on ZB's drive show, host Heather du Plessis-Allan eagerly endorsed the Minister of Education Erica Stanford. "She's smashing it out of the park" she said approvingly. But the Otago Daily Times was not so sure this week. Its editorial on Thursday said there was too little detail about exactly what will replace NCEA to give the minister an 'A' for it just yet. The Herald's Audrey Young this week credited Stanford with "a momentous change with relatively little dissent." Partly that was due to her own confidence and drive - and ability to identify problems, find solutions and push them through, she said. But Young also said the widespread lack of confidence in the current system - shared by many of the media pundits - was the other main factor. And though you wouldn't know it from much of the coverage this week - consigning NCEA to the dustbin of educational history isn't a done deal just yet either. The proposals are in a discussion document PDF open for consultation during the next six weeks. In the media discussion so far, any drawbacks have not had much attention. But more students are likely to come out of education with less or even nothing to show for it under the proposed new system. After the NCEA announcement coverage peaked, RNZ's John Gerritsen pointed to new stats that show school leavers with no qualifications are at the highest level in a decade. 16 percent of last year's leavers - and 28 percent of Māori students - left school with no qualification last year. Every teacher RNZ spoke to also warned the timeline for introducing a new curriculum next year, followed by the new qualification from 2028 through to 2030, was tight and would require a lot of support. While most school principals backed the change when the media asked for their views, AUT senior lecturer in education Stuart Deerness warned: "The loudest voices calling for educational change don't always represent what all students need." "The story of NCEA shows how powerful the actions of elite institutions can be, even when they don't intend to cause system-wide change," he wrote for The Conversation . "Since NCEA was introduced between 2002 and 2004, these prominent schools have increasingly opted for alternative assessment systems. This effectively undermined trust in the official assessment system," Deerness said. While the flexibility of NCEA has been portrayed as a weakness by many people this week, it has been a benefit for some students, Annabelle Lee-Mather said on The Spinoff's politics podcast Gone By Lunchtime . "(NCEA) gives students' families time to course-correct. You can see from early in the year how they're tracking, where they need to focus and where they can build up their credits - instead of your kids working all year at school and then flunking out at the end and you don't have time to fix it," she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
South China Morning Post
03-08-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
How Hong Kong's secondary schools are fostering creativity in students
In an era marked by rapid technological advancements and evolving job markets, fostering creativity in secondary education is essential not only for academic success but also for developing the leaders of tomorrow. For this reason, educators today are advocating for creativity to be seen as a vital tool applicable across multiple disciplines. 'Creativity is a skill, not a talent. Therefore, it can be taught and learned,' explains Shaun Porter, principal (international programme) at Dalton School Hong Kong (DSHK). He explains that a multifaceted approach to creativity is crucial for helping students navigate complex, real-life problems in our ever-changing world. Others agree that given secondary students are beginning their journey to joining the workforce, it is critical to cultivate creativity among them – starting with having the right mindset. Creativity is seen as a vital tool in the education process. Photo: Handout Toby Newton, executive head of school at the International College of Hong Kong (ICHK), explains: 'At ICHK secondary [school], we define creativity as a frame of mind and a willingness of spirit.' This suggests that creativity is inherent in all human endeavours. Indeed, Teresa Tung, secondary school principal at the Hong Kong Academy (HKA), adds that creativity exists everywhere and should not be siloed. 'Creativity lives in maths, science, everything that we do,' she says, adding that it is essential for young people – particularly those in secondary school – to feel empowered to create and bring new value into the world. This sentiment is echoed by Shane McKinney, a long-standing science and maths teacher at HKA, who underscores the importance of applying existing skills in novel ways.
Malay Mail
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Fadhlina: MoE pledges RM67b boost for transformative education reforms from preschool to secondary under 13MP
PUTRAJAYA, Aug 1 — The Ministry of Education (MOE) will give full focus to the development of preschool to secondary education under the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), as part of efforts to enhance the focus and effectiveness of the national education system. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, in a statement today, announced that RM67 billion has been allocated for the education sector, including the construction of new schools and the upgrading of infrastructure at educational institutions across the country. 'The Madani Government's current focus is to ensure universal enrolment at both the preschool and secondary education levels,' she said. She added that the Education (Amendment) Bill 2025, which aims to make secondary education compulsory, was recently passed by the Dewan Rakyat. Fadhlina also noted that making preschool education compulsory from the age of five is intended to provide children with a holistic and comprehensive foundation in early learning. To support the initiative, Fadhlina said more preschool facilities under MOE will be established nationwide to ensure broader access and higher enrolment rates. She added that under 13MP, school construction efforts will include mandatory school development as part of large-scale housing projects, along with the expansion of vertical school construction. These measures aim to address issues of overcrowding and limited school sites, particularly in high-density urban areas. In addition, Fadhlina said that special emphasis will be placed on integrated efforts to strengthen proficiency in both Bahasa Melayu and English, as well as reinforcing focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and digital literacy, including artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Acknowledging that teachers are the cornerstone of the national education reform agenda, she said the government will prioritise improvements in the recruitment of new teachers, preparatory training programmes, and efforts to enhance the competence and professionalism of those already in service. 'The 13th Malaysia Plan is a reflection of the Madani Government's commitment to reforming the national education system through a bolder, more transformative approach for the benefit of all Malaysian children,' she said. Fadhlina also expressed MOE's appreciation to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for tabling the 13MP, which places a strong emphasis on a comprehensive education reform agenda aligned with the Malaysia Madani framework. — Bernama
BBC News
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Romesh Ranganathan's son's school place appeal turned down
The comedian and TV presenter Romesh Ranganathan has said his appeal to get his youngest son into one of his preferred choices of secondary schools has been turned down. Mr Ranganathan said he had "accepted the decision" but commented that "the system wasn't working".Speaking in a video on Instagram the TV personality said "lots of people in the same situation" had contacted him and that the situation was "particularly bad for people with special needs and disabilities".A spokesperson for West Sussex County Council (WSCC) said: "We understand the disappointment of parents who are not offered a place at a school of their preferences." Mr Ranganathan commented that there was "no easy solution to the situation" and said his family would have to "go with an alternative". In April the comedian said he had emailed West Sussex County Council six times after his son had been placed in a school "on the other side of town", and not at the same school as his elder two said at the time he had received no response and his local MP, who agreed to investigate, had been told the council "can't do anything about it".A WSCC statement said: "We do all we can to provide young people with school places and this year we were able to offer 87% of the 9,050 secondary school applicants a place at their first choice of school, while nearly 97% were offered a place at one of their three preferences."Applications are considered by our admissions team on their priority according to the relevant oversubscription criteria for their preferred schools, which may include proximity of the school to home and whether other siblings attend the same school."
The Independent
20-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Alarming trend emerges among Year 7 pupils
A study reveals a significant drop in school enjoyment for pupils during their first year of secondary education (Year 7). The research, tracking over 100,000 pupils in England, found lower levels of enjoyment, trust, agency, and safety reported by Year 7 pupils, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Girls' feelings of safety decline more steeply than boys' between Year 7 and Year 9. A strong correlation exists between engagement levels and attendance, with higher engagement linked to lower absenteeism. The study emphasises the need for interventions and support services to address disengagement and ensure a positive learning environment for all pupils during the transition to secondary school.
