Kerre Woodham: Everyday children deserve support and encouragement

This particular pre-Budget announcement should be music to the ears of parents who are currently working every hour God sends to pay for extra maths coaching for their children. You might have heard them on this show before – parents who really can't afford it, but say to themselves they can't afford not to, pay for the sort of tuition that teachers are unable to give in school, that one-on-one coaching to fix the gaps in literacy and in maths. Core subjects that teachers should be able to teach and should have time to provide extra support for those children who needed a little bit of a catch up, but in the modern-day classroom environment, it appears they cannot.  

Next week's Budget will include nearly $100 million in funding over four years for students who are underachieving in maths, including $56 million for the equivalent of 143 “maths intervention teachers” in primary schools. I didn't know we had a “maths intervention” tree, but it will be fantastic to pick 143 teachers off there and pop them in the classrooms. Perhaps they'll come out of the after-school tuition programmes. 

From next year, all students will have their maths ability checked in their first two years of schooling, which is fantastic. You have to know where you're coming from, you have to have a base from which you can start. Education Minister Erica Stanford said the maths check scheme would cost $4 million and aims to identify students who need more support, similar to the literacy phonics check unveiled last year, which is going, by all accounts, great guns. So that's $100 million that we've got, that's $56 million spent on the maths intervention teachers, $4 million for the maths check scheme, and according to my maths, that leaves us $40 million that will fund small group maths tutoring for up to 34,000 year  7 & 8 students each year, from next year. Hell-ay-jolly-lujah!   

As I say, parents are trying to shore up the gaps in their children's maths education by enrolling them and after school tuition at considerable expense will be absolutely delighted. Are the teachers? Thank you for asking. According to Upper Hutt Principals Association president Robyn Brown on Early Edition this morning, not so much. 

“Unfortunately our problem doesn't sit in maths. We are desperate for learning support and if we want to improve achievement, we need to put every cent we have into learning support rather than ring fencing it just for maths. We know that that's not going to make a huge difference. At the moment we have inadequate PLD or professional development for teachers. On a curriculum that they've only had two terms to teach so far, it's not been implemented with ability, we have no way of even assessing it yet.” 

It would be great if you could say $100 million investment in our classrooms is fantastic, but I guess you're not going to get that from Principal Associations and education ministries. They have been saying for some time, since Labour was in power, that they need more professional development. They need more time and there have been many, many changes within the schools around the curriculum, and I don't blame them for wanting to catch a breath, catch up with what this iteration of the curriculum looks like. But when she says math isn't the problem, that is the problem.  

In 2023, New Zealand students recorded their worst ever results in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment. The average student dropped up to 15 points in maths, one of the worst performing. It's not a one-off. New Zealand's “achievement” in maths has plateaued for the past two decades. And then you had all this nonsense back in 2022, saying they get maths anxiety before tests, they're very anxious. They're actually brilliant at maths, they just get very anxious before exams. What tosh, absolute nonsense. They don't know the answers – that's where the anxiety comes from. They're not prepared; they don't know how to do it. Parents know this. They will welcome this investment even if the teachers don't, or the teachers' unions and representatives don't.  

When it comes to the learning difficulties, that surely is a separate matter entirely. Neurodiverse kids, kids who are behind the eight-ball from the time they were born because of the damage done in the womb, that is complex, it is difficult, but surely it's a completely separate issue. I'm not sure it should be conflated with your average school kid needing to do better in core subjects – children who are able to learn from a standard curriculum, who want to do better, who deserve better, who should be doing better. I'm sure there's a shopping list a mile long that any teacher or principal has when it comes to doing the best for the kids that turn up in their classroom. Too often your ordinary, everyday children are getting left behind and forgotten. They d

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from News Talks, he'd.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Be this particular pre budget announcement. Gone are the days
of the great drama of the budget reading. We've got
dribbles of information coming out weeks days before the actual
budget is announced. By the time it's the everyone or
just sigh and go oh, I, yes we knew that anyway.
But this particular pre budget announcement should be music to
the years of parents who are currently working every hour

(00:33):
God sends to pay for extra maths coaching for their children.
You might have heard them on the show before, parents
who really can't afford it, but say to themselves they
can't afford not to pay for the sort of tuition
that teachers are unable to give, that one on one

(00:53):
coaching teachers are unable to give in school, to fix
the gaps in literacy and in maths core subjects that
teachers should be able to teach and should have time
to provide extra support for those children who need a
little bit of a catch up, But the modern day
classroom environment, it appears they cannot. Next week's budget will

(01:17):
include nearly one hundred million dollars in funding over four
years for students who are underachieving in maths, including fifty
six million dollars for the equivalent of one hundred and
forty three maths intervention teachers in primary schools. I didn't
know we had a maths intervention tree, but it will
be fantastic to pick one hundred and forty three teachers

(01:38):
off there and pop them in the classrooms. Perhaps they'll
come out of the after school tuition programs. I don't know.
From next year, all students will have their maths ability
checked in their first two years of schooling, which is fantastic.
You have to know where you're coming from. You have
to have a base from which you can start. Education

(02:00):
Minister Erica Stanford said the Maths Check scheme would cost
four million dollars and aims to identify students who need
more support, similar to the Literacy Phonics check unveiled last year,
which is going by all accounts, great guns. So that's
one hundred million that we've got. That's fifty six spent
on the maths intervention teachers, four million for the Maths

(02:23):
Check scheme, and according to my Maths, that leaves US
forty million dollars and that will fund small groups, small
group maths tutoring for up to thirty four thousand, year
seven and eight students each year from next year. How
a jolly luyer, As I say, parents are trying to
shore up the gaps in their children's maths education by

(02:46):
enrolling them and after school tuition at considerable expense, will
be absolutely delighted. Are the teachers? Thank you for asking?
According to Upper Hut Principals Association President Robin Brown on
early edition this morning, not so much.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Unfortunately, our problem doesn't sit in maths. We are desperate
for learning support. If we want to improve achievement, we
need to put every cent we have into learning support
rather than ring fencing it just for mas. We know
that that's not going to make a huge difference At
the moment. We have an adequate PLD or professional development

(03:23):
for teachers on a curriculum that they've only had two
terms to teach so far. It's not being implemented with fability.
We have no way of even assessing it.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Jest. So you know, it would be great if you
could say a hundred million dollars investment in our classrooms. Fantastic,
But I guess you're not going to get that from
principal associations and education ministries. They have been saying for
some time, since the labor was empowered, that they need

(03:53):
more professional development, they need more time, and there have
been many many changes within the schools around the curriculum.
And I don't blame them for wanting to catch a breath,
catch up with what this iteration of the curriculum looks like.
But when she says math isn't the problem, it is
the problem. In twenty twenty three, New Zealand students recorded

(04:15):
their worst ever results in the OECD Program for International
Student Assessment. The average student dropped up to fifteen points
in maths, one of the worst performing It's not a
one off. New Zealand's achievement in inverted commons and maths
is plateaued for the past two decades. And then you

(04:36):
had all this wafty nonsense back in twenty twenty two, say, oh,
well they get maths anxiety before tests. They're very anxious.
They're actually brilliant at maths, they just get very anxious
before exams. Oh what Tosh, absolute nonsense. They don't know
the answers, that's where the anxiety comes from. They're not prepared,

(04:57):
they don't know how to do it. Parents know this,
They will welcome this investment. The teachers don't, or the
teachers unions and representatives don't. When it comes to the
learning difficulties, that surely is a separate matter, entirely neurodiverse kids,

(05:18):
kids who are behind the eight ball from the time
they were born because of the damage done in the womb.
That is complex, It is difficult, but surely it's a
completely separate issue. I'm not sure it should be conflated
with your average school kid needing to do better in

(05:39):
core subjects. Children who are able to learn from a
standard curriculum, who want to do better, who deserve better,
who should be doing better. Yeah, I'm sure there's a
shopping list a mile long that any teacher or principle
has when it comes to doing the best for the
kids that turn up in their classroom. Too often, your

(06:03):
ordinary everyday children, who are the children of ordinary everyday parents,
who are working, who are doing their best to coaching
sport after school, who are paying their taxes, who have
never committed any crime, wouldn't know where their nearest welfare
office was. Too often, those kids are getting left behind
and forgotten. They deserve the best. They deserve to be

(06:31):
supported and encouraged and just see how far they can go.
Not have all the money spent on trying to deal
with incredibly complex and difficult situations with families and children.
How about a little support for these kids whose parents
are doing the best by them, whose teachers are trying

(06:54):
to do the best by them, but they're getting dragged
in so many different directions and situations. I'm all for this.
This is fantastic. Have the base check know which children
are going to need the extra support, target it to
them and hopefully, hopefully in a few years, we won't
have children leaving primary school who are illiterate and enumerate,

(07:17):
because that has been a crying shame for the past
two decades and that is only going to benefit New
Zealand to have a better educated populace.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
For more from carry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
news Talks at b from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.