We have recently seen many articles in the media related to the changes in the school curriculum championed by the Minister of Education, Hon Erica Stanford and the general consensus seems to be that they have seen almost an immediate upturn in basic literacy and numeracy for our children.
Great news for all concerned as this is what the education system is there for; to educate our children and provide them with the skills to achieve in their future life.
Schools should be focused on ensuring high achievement for all students, not on giving effect to any particular ideology.
Yet we have seen the New Zealand Principals’ Federation just this month, release a media statement criticising the Government’s plan to remove Treaty of Waitangi responsibilities from school boards under the new Education and Training Amendment Bill.
Originally this Bill had amongst its supporting objectives, which a school was compelled to meet, was that it must give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi by achieving equitable outcomes for Maori students, ensure that its learning programmes reflect local tikanga, matauranga Maori and te ao Maori and that reasonable steps are taken to ensure instruction is available in te reo Maori.
By legislating that a school must ensure its learning programmes “reflect local tikanga, matauranga Maori and te ao Maori” that version of the Amendment Bill was breaking with the longstanding principle of secular education.
The government said the Treaty is an obligation for the Crown, not schools and that schools should be focused on ensuring high achievement for all students, not on figuring out how to give effect to the Treaty.
Since the passing of the Education Act of 1877, educational instruction in New Zealand state schools has been free and secular; meaning all education was funded by the taxpayers of NZ and free from religious and spiritual instruction unless parents agreed otherwise.
Matauranga Maori is a belief of the interconnectedness of all things, both tangible and intangible, including the spiritual and metaphysical and as such it is surely outside the realm of secularism and nothing more than religious belief.
Given that it is nothing more than a system of religious beliefs, the compulsory supporting objective (of give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi by achieving equitable outcomes for Maori students, ensure that its learning programmes reflect local tikanga, matauranga Maori and te ao Maori and that reasonable steps are taken to ensure instruction is available in te reo Maori) in the Amendment Bill should not have been there.
It was effectively just an entrenchment of the teaching of Maori knowledge, of the so-called holistic worldview that focuses on customary Maori values and lore.
Mythical pre-European Stone Age culture and beliefs have no place in a modern 21st century education system. Freedom to follow those beliefs belongs with the culture and the adherents to such beliefs; as such it is best taught and belongs on the marae.
The forced inclusion of such race based sectarian beliefs into New Zealand’s education system was wrong and as such it was decided to remove all obligations to any race based sectarian beliefs from the Bill.
Such race based sectarian beliefs serve absolutely no practical or useful purpose. An enforced teaching of a culture the majority do not belong to and whose tenants they do not believe in, is likely to generate division, resentment and anger.
Yet the New Zealand Principals’ Federation described the removal of this objective to teach local tikanga, matauranga Maori and Te ao Maori as “extreme” and “far right.”
But what was required under this objective, was a system of ideological indoctrination cloaked in cultural empathy hidden behind a virtue signalling sea of Maori culture with our educators scrambling to prove their cultural credentials and enforcing a cultural ideology across every aspect of education rather than concentrating on delivering basic teaching in literacy, numeracy and life skills.
It’s hard to overstate how disconnected these cultural concerns are from the real challenges facing education in New Zealand. It raises serious questions about whether the Federation is primarily interested in education itself or in promoting a programme of left-wing social engineering.
Many have asserted claims for some type of right under the Treaty of Waitangi, to teach Maori culture and Te Ao Maori (the Maori world view) when in actual fact there is no basis in truth for this assertion.
But you’re not allowed to question it. You’re not allowed to ask for clarity. If you do, you’re dismissed as backward, racist, colonial; a problem to be fixed or, preferably, ignored.
The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840, contains just three articles:
• Article 1 records that Maori chief’s ceded sovereignty to the British Crown.
• Article 2 guarantees protection of property and the exclusive right of the Crown to purchase land.
• Article 3 grants Maori the same rights and privileges as British subjects.
That’s it. There is nothing in the Treaty about schooling, curriculum, or boards of trustees. The Treaty was not a framework for schooling or social policy. It was a simple political agreement defining sovereignty, land dealings, and equal rights under the Crown.
When “free,” compulsory, state-funded education was introduced through the Education Act of 1877, it came nearly forty years after the Treaty was signed. Quite simply, nobody signing the Treaty had any inkling or intention that these articles would ever apply to government-controlled education — because such a system did not yet exist.
To suggest that the Treaty somehow mandates a particular school governance model is nothing more than ideological bullshit which has become one of the biggest roadblocks to progress in the New Zealand education system.
Surely the core purpose of school boards is to ensure that children are well educated; that every student can read, write, and reason; that teachers are supported to teach effectively; and that schools are accountable for results.
The following are areas our education system has been struggling with:
These are the urgent issues that should occupy the attention of educational leaders.
The true partnership in education is not between “the Crown” and “Maori.” It’s between parents and schools — families and teachers working together for the good of children.
We’ve seen campaigns redefining the very concept of knowledge to include Maori spiritual ideology. We’ve seen schoolchildren, most of whom aren’t Maori, and many whose families have different religious beliefs, forced to participate in spiritual ideology (karakia) multiple times a day as if they’re attending a religious school, not a secular public school.
We have a situation where our educational system has been re-engineered to further the aims of the grievance industry through revision of the history curriculum and the teaching of that revised history in relation to Maori settlement of NZ.
Colonisation is being blamed for the lack of achievement in the educational system by Maori and there have been claims made that we need to decolonise the education system in New Zealand to allow Maori to have an equal chance of achievement with other races.
I say that in my honest opinion this claim is far from correct.
I believe my reason for saying this is well supported by looking at the example of the Maori full immersion schools and their rates of success.
They are achieving great results.
Are these a result of decolonising the education system? NO!
The results are due to the support from people working within those systems and from within the families of the students. The results come from hard work by all involved.
Yes they may be ably assisted by the full immersion systems but at the end of it all the main reason for their success is down to the commitment and effort of all those involved and they should be commended for those efforts.
The opposite is seen when we look at the lack of achievement from those in the normal state school systems, and we see that most of the students failing miserably in those systems are lacking in support from their own families.
Maorification of the education system has created a huge waste of taxpayer’s money without doing anything to ensure the provision of effective learning outcomes for students, and that’s the real problem.
By elevating Maori spiritual Ideology to sacred, unchallengeable status, above science, above secularism, might make it feel good for educators, but it does nothing to ensure the provision of effective learning outcomes for either Maori or non-Maori students.
They should all be focussed on improving literacy, discipline and academic achievement rather than ideological box-ticking and enforced conformity.
A child who cannot read by the end of primary school is being denied the opportunity to achieve a better future for themselves and any family they have in the future.
The sole purpose for schools is to educate their pupils, focus them on achieving the maximum level of academic excellence they can, giving them the highest quality education possible which ensures they can read, write, think clearly and confidently and contribute meaningfully to their own & New Zealand’s future.
If New Zealand education wants to regain credibility, it must rediscover its purpose. Schools exist to educate, not to virtue-signal. Let’s hope this move marks a turning point away from political distraction and back toward a focus on academic excellence.
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By Andy Loader, Poke the Bear