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August 23, 2025 • 35 mins

Literacy and numeracy rates in New Zealand are still shameful compared to other countries in the OECD. 

23% of year 8 students are at the curriculum benchmark for maths following recent curriculum changes from the Government, up from 22% in 2023. 

Teachers in recent years have put the blame on parents, saying kids are starting school without the basics. 

Harpreet Singh is the founder of SIP Abacus New Zealand, and he joins for Parent Squad. 

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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks
A B.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
No way, no fooling. I don't need know most poolers.
I was born to just born line those time, all
those time. Will you know why I'm in it?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Then I send my watch back to it in.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
All those times.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yes, And welcome back to the show. If you miss
any of the of the previous hours and you can go
and check them on our podcast on News Talks, the
bea dot coutter and Z and this is now it's
time for the Parents Squad and we got a new
guest in the studio because uh there was You will
have seen if you've been watching the news recently that
the literacy and numeracy rates in New Zealand are still

(01:01):
shameful compared to some other countries in the OE c D.
So that the stat that really leapt out, and look
they had changed the benchmark a bit so looked even
more dramatic. But the stat was that leapt out was
that twenty three percent of year eight students are at
the curriculum benchmark for maths, following recent curriculum changes from
the government. So it's up from twenty two percent twenty

(01:24):
twenty three, So literally less than a quarter of students
are at the benchmark for maths. So teachers in recent
years put the blame on parents, saying kids are starting
school without the basics. So that's a part of the discussion.
So how important is it for parents to teach their
children the basics before they even hit the school system?

(01:44):
And how much of your children's education relies on the
effort that you put in as well? We love your
calls on this on eight hundred eighty ten eighty. I mean,
did you their parents? Who? I mean? My wife's a teacher.
She'll tell you that there are kids who arrive at
school with the high level of numeracy and there are
others who don't have so much or you know, in
terms of known the alphabet or some can read some

(02:05):
can't read it all. So whose responsibility is it for it?
And how important is it for parents to teach kids
the basics before they start school? And we've got a
new guest in the studio. He's the founder of it's
an education progress program for maths called sip Abaics New Zealand,
and his name is Harpret Singh and he's with us
for the parents squad right now, Good day, heart, pret
how are you going?

Speaker 4 (02:25):
I'm good?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
How are you not too bad? Now? I'm funny enough.
I recognized your name from something and it's from it
was tell us. We discussed this a little bit before,
but you were in the media, I think a few
years ago, involved with what was it food parcels or something.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, So back in the days when it was the
time of COVID, we had a lot of families who
were struggling to get groceries. Now, you know, in those
days there were long queues and the online delivery you
had to wait for four to five days to get
a parcel. It was called countdown back then those bulwards,
so four to five days was the waiting time to

(03:02):
just get at parcel. You did not want people who
were sick with COVID or had symptoms of something like
COVID to go out of home. But everyone wanted the groceries.
So we designed a system back then that they could
just call us and let us know what they wanted
and when they could do that. We had our volunteers
across Newsland to our organization Seek a Ware, So we

(03:24):
had about fifty to seventy volunteers on the ground who
used to actually go to the shopping and deliver it
to the people who were not able to leave their home.
So we delivered the grocery. We'd not pay for the groceries.
So the person who.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Needed it, Yeah, oh good on you who recognized that
lead who was the person who had the idea.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Was that it was me who back then we felt that,
you know, a lot of people don't feel comfortable in
spreading the virus, or maybe a lot of them were
like old people who were scared of contracting the virus.
So they were requesting that Okay, let's have something come.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
I'm I'm glad you have to cleared that up. Macerus
saw the name, I was like, this kind of sounds familiar,
but anyway, we'll get on you now. So you're involved
in this organization. I mean, it's a business called sip
Abigus and it's a way of it's a method of
teaching kids. Maths Well tell us a bit about that.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
The abagus is a tool which has been used from
ancient times. It was invented in East Asia, in somewhere
in China and Japan, and that was something that the
Chinese used till quite recently. It was a part of
their education system. Now, abagus can help you to do additions, attraction, multiplication,
and division, et cetera. And this is something that has

(04:38):
been pioneered by a sip abacus and they've developed it
into a system which can have the children to do
mathematics without the need of any calculator and any abigus.
So the children they move the beads in the mind
and they can do a calculation for example, six three
hundred and seventy two times seven. The children can do
in less than two seconds without using a calculator or
any other tool right in the mind.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
So what was it that, I mean when it comes
to what got you interested in and well, this idea,
but literacy, numerical literacy for your children. Was it because
you were worried about it or because you wanted them
to be really good?

Speaker 4 (05:16):
We'd been reading a lot about issues with the standards
of numeracy as well as literacy in New Zealand, and
that was all around in the media. COVID came, education stopped.
There was so called online education. But we know that
how much the children really learned during that time and
they were struggling now that's when I got my daughter

(05:38):
enrolled into the sip Abiicus program online through one of
my friends who was holding the classes.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Was it just a way of keeping you busy, because
you're thinking, you know, I don't mean keeping you busy,
but it was like, we're getting so much at the
moment we needed it more, so, oh, this looks like
it might be fun.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
I was always wanting to enroll my child in the
sip Abiicus program because I had learned about it when
I was back in India about two thousand and ten,
two thousand and eight, and I'd seen a lot of
been doing really well with the SPIC program, so it
was always my goal. I was wondering, I wish it
was there when I was younger, because it wasn't there
in my school days. So I thought that, hey, can

(06:15):
I have my daughter on the program. And then COVID
was I would say I shouldn't say it, but it
was the time when they started the classes online. They
started offering the classes online, and then my daughter got
online and she learned at the SPAS program. I saw
tremendous improvement in a very short amount of time.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
What do you think when you see the stats around
the achievement. I mean how much. Obviously kids don't enroll
themselves in these programs, I mean yours as well, But
parents make these decisions, and I would I mean, i'd
be I'd suspect that the kids who are doing the
program that you're offering that they would be probably good.

(06:57):
They'd be doing all right at school anyway, because their
parents are engaged in their learning. But I mean, it's
it's it's a slippery slope, isn't it, because you don't
want to blame parents for kids lack of development. But
I mean, how much is it? In a way, I
would say the sort of if people are enroll and
of course that you're offering, their kids are probably going
to be doing all right because their parents are engaged

(07:19):
and they're learning full stops a job done. I mean,
how much of it? Do you think the problems that
we've got are because we're not spending enough time with
their kids on their education.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
I would say I would agree with you quite a
bit on that point, because today's parents, you know, the
cost of housing is very expensive in New Zealand. To
afford a mortgage, you're probably working one and a half job.
A lot of parents are doing that, especially the new immigrants.
So what's happening is that when the parents don't have
time for their children, who becomes the default babysitter the

(07:51):
phone and the children are spending long time on the phone,
watching videos, watching reels, watching shots. What's happening to them?

Speaker 3 (07:57):
That's so funny.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
I mean, now Australia has banned it. Why have the
band it? Because they have realized that YouTube or other
social media is harmful for children. But we still have it.
We still have the evil residing with us.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
What's your approach to phones in your family in terms
of I don't know, you can share as little as
you like, or of your family. How many children have
you got?

Speaker 4 (08:22):
I have two children. I have a daughter who's aged
twelve and a son who's eight years old. Now my
daughter has a phone. She does use it, but she's
not allowed to spend long She's off social media, so
she's not allowed to have an Instagram that's a good account,
because it's not legal for a child to have an
Instagram account. She made one, she had to delete it.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
How did you find out just out of curiosity? Did
you get in a notification saying someone you know may
have because funnily enough, in my household we did have one.
I got a notification that someone you know has an
Instagram account and it had the email address, and that's
how I found out, and it got I mean, it

(09:03):
didn't last long and it wasn't a big deal. It
was just she wanted to see a post. Someone had
posted something funny, so she wanted to be able to
see it.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
So yeah, she told me she had it. I said,
stop using it, and then I found out she's still
using it. Then she had to delete it. So yeah,
it wasn't a hard conversation. She's nice, she listens and.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, actually I wasn't anticipading the conversation going in this direction.
But I mean, how and we have discussed the squad
a bit on the parents squad, but it does seem
that if you could just get kids at least to
put down the phone and get them off social media.
Do you think Australia's got the right idea with that
sort of thing?

Speaker 4 (09:40):
I think currently in Sipah, because we have more than
one thousand, five hundred children. Out of them, I interact
with about one thousand parents once every three months. Now,
the kind of children who are really really struggling. Yeah,
our children of parents who do not have too much
time for the children, and these children are spending long
hours on YouTube or social media. They're spending long time

(10:04):
on playing games like Fortnite, et cetera. So that's what
these are the children. If you're spending up to half
an hour, it's acceptable. And when I say screen time,
I don't mean like, obviously you have other stuff to do,
like homework from school, which is on devices. I'm not
talking playing screen time. When I'm saying screen time, I
mean stuff like watching YouTube videos where the screens are
turning very quickly, watching or playing games where you know,

(10:28):
the kind of arcade games, et cetera, which are there
where the scene changes really really quickly. That's very harmful
for the children. And my personal belief is not more
than half an.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Hour but day. Yeah, Actually, that's interesting to hear say
that because I mean the devices, because people like to
say device free time. But the problem the problem is
is actually well not the problem, it's just the way
life is. Is that. It's the type of the user,
isn't it, Because you know, devices are an integral part
of our existence really and our education. When did you

(11:00):
first sort of think, oh my god, was it the
Instagram account where you thought this was a bit of
a challenge for you.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
I had observed, for example, when my daughter, she was
four years old, we had given her free access to
the device and she could watch pepper Peg and stuff.
And then I became the naughty papa pepper Peg. They
keep saying a naughty to the father. So every time
my daughter used to address me, and she used to
go pink oink like making big sounds, et cetera. So

(11:26):
it was I decided, Okay.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
I think I have seen the hard way.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
I learned it the hard way, and I felt that, okay,
as long as the child is watching good stuff, it's fine.
But when you saw that the child becomes aggressive after
a lot of screen time, then you realize, okay, something's
going wrong in your parenting.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
So when it came, I mean when with both of you,
your children, when what was your attitude to preschool for them,
just their learning? Did you was it something where you
were focusing on you know, I read to them, or
you'd be you know, was doing a little exercise and

(12:05):
teaching the idea of counting. Did you do anything from
an education point of view? Before they were five, so
I don't have to don't have to share too much better.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
No, No, I'll be honest. Yes and no. You asked
whether I did it. I did not do it, but
my wife did it.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
So are you handling this?

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Yeah, because at that time my wife had taken time
off work and she did not join till the time
my daughter got into school, So five years she was
not working. She was at home educating my daughter, and
she was working with For example, we had a lot
of books, we had a lot of lovely videos that
my daughter used to watch, educational and the children learned

(12:47):
a lot and she was good when she started school.
So yes, children should be educated.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
It's funny because I can't. I mean, it's too far
longer for me to remember. But I just remember I
was read to a lot, you know, at home, and
I think that I don't think I was taught about
numerous around. I think you never remember these things. But
I guess because my wife's a teacher. I think my
kids that are reasonable backing, grounding when they went into school.

(13:15):
I mean, why do you what do you think we've
got those results with? I mean, look, we have picked
the worst results out of the lot right, twenty three
percent of year eight students at the benchmark for maths.
Why do you think that is? Is it because, I mean,
we know the curriculums failing, because Erica Stanford's talking about

(13:35):
it as well. But is it is there's something wrong
in terms of just because there are schools who will
for instance the school my wife teachers at there at
ninety four percent of people at the benchmark? What it
should be? What do you think makes the difference with

(13:56):
why kids are either at or not at the benchmark?
What have you learned about that?

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Coming back, like you mentioned that in the early days,
you need to spend a time with a child. If
a child is learning in the early days, you teach
the child before they join school that there's something called
is learning. Then they go to school and they start learning.
They're interested in learning. Now, if the only way you
want to engage your child is give the child a device,

(14:22):
which is happening in many families unfortunately that the parent
is busy and the phone has become the default babysitter.
So when you give your child the phone and you say, okay,
watch this video, even though the video may be educational,
it is resulting in loss of concentration, a loss of
attention span for the child. Now, when this child goes
into school and the teacher is trying to teach something

(14:45):
and there is let's say, a person walking outside the
room outside the classroom, the child gets distracted very easily.
So the teacher who's trying to teach the child is
not able to do so because of lack of concentration
of the children. And this is happening because we have
some of the highest ratios of house prices to income.

(15:06):
The house prices are very high. So, like I said,
because is.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
That the thing you know with I mean, you're I mean,
there are lots of different educational aids and things, but
your one is sip abacus. Is the main thing that
you want kids to get out of something like this,
is it simply recovering the ability to concentrate.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
Then concentration is a very important fact for the children
to recover their ability. Once that happens, they can start
learning everything else much better. And that's the secret to success.
I believe that you get your concentration right what your
teacher is teaching, you'll be able to learn that Because
for learning ability, it starts at concentration.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Well, have your calls on this, because that was I mean,
I don't know if you if you saw that news
of the twenty three percent of year eight students. Okay
we've picked the worst stat but twenty three percent of
year eight students are at the curriculum benchmark for maths
following recent curriculum changes, of course, but that's less than
a quarter are at basically at the standard they should
be at. What do you I mean, what do you

(16:04):
think how pre sing as my guest, he's the founder
of sip A because in New Zealand, But it seems
from what Harpreat's saying, from his observations as as a
father as well, is that it's about the loss of concentration,
it's about devices. What do you think we need to
do to get our kids back on track? Obviously we
have a Ministry of Education who's dedicated to making sure

(16:27):
that we improve our curriculum and get kids learning the basics. Well,
I don't know what the slogan she uses is, but
what do you think is it is the cause of
it and at the heart of it, is it the
fact that we're just creating an environment perhaps where our
kids too easily distracted, that they're losing the ability to
concentrate regardless of what you're teaching them. Give us a call.
We'd love to hear from you on eight hundred and

(16:48):
eighty ten eighty in text nine two nine two. Don't
worry about the email, because we're here for the calls.
It's twenty three past five. News Talks EDB, News Talks, HEB.
We're talking about maths, literacy, what can we do to
improve it? And actually I'm just going to hang a
quicker pin out there, and it's a tough one and
heart preach sing. Who's my guests. He's the founder of

(17:09):
It's an educational program called sip Abacus, And I just
can't help but get past the thing that somehow we've lost.
I think herpreat made an interesting point about devices, which
I wasn't expecting him to make. Actually, just that how
we have maybe a generation of kids who are more distracted.
But I can't help but think, if you know the times,

(17:31):
there are certain schools who've got very high percentage pass rates,
and from what I understand, it's because the parents are
involved also in doing their best to try and get
their kids rocking and rolling with their mouths as well,
because they value it. So I don't know, you'd never
like to blame parents for this sort of stuff. And
as Herpreck generously said, life is tough. You have to

(17:52):
have like one and a half salaries to be able
to afford to get into a house. So how do
we get around this stuff? Of course, we've got an
education ministry wants to get around our math's listeracy. So
what do you reckon? Let's go to the calls, shall we? Steve? Hello?

Speaker 5 (18:05):
Yeah, you know guys, Look, I'm quite left where I live.
My seven year old son goes to a school which
is exemplary, is a very good school, and it's maybe
the school your your wife is very close to your location.

(18:26):
Actually no, not there.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
Close as close enough of that in that sort of
general vicinity.

Speaker 5 (18:33):
But look, you know what I've got. I've got two
apps that I used to help my son in the evenings.
That we got reading Eggs, and we've got mass Buddy.
And mass Buddy is actually the program that the school
pays for and all the all the students get and
the parents get to use for the additional training for

(18:55):
their kids. Now without those two, without the reading eggs.
Without the mass, buddy, I don't know where my son
would be. I think it'd be well well behind with
out the additional work that we put in in the evenings,
because we do about try and do forty five minutes
every evening, even up to an hour. And look, I

(19:15):
can you know what. I can see the difference. I
can see where it's going wrong the teachers. I think
the systems set up, isn't it for where the kids
will fail? But the teachers cannot really fail unless they
do something incredibly bad. But there's no real goal goals.
There's no targets, is there like sales?

Speaker 3 (19:37):
You know, well, there will be there will be now,
I mean we're bringing in standards and all that. I mean, yeah,
I mean what that may help is one thing. You've
got one thing you're talking about there, Steve as well,
that you're engaged in your and your child's learning full stop.
So that's that's the victory there we go.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
Well, well, look look if I if I didn't, I
don't know where he'd be because he goes to school
to enhance his EQ, not as IQ. I can tell
you that I don't know what he does at school. Actually,
I mean it's like you get guesslate from by the
teachers when you go to these's.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
I really agree with you, Steve's. So what has happened
here is that when the National Party released its manifesto
that we're going to have one hour of literacy and
one hour of numeracy in the schools every day, I
was like shocked. Okay, what was happening before this? I
thought that they were alterally doing because the only thing
that there are judge they are judged on is literacy
and numeracy. So if they're going to be starting that, now,

(20:31):
what have children been learning before this?

Speaker 5 (20:34):
Look, it's all been fluffy stuff, That's what That's what
I've seen from year one to where my startter is now.
They're doing little creative things. They're they're just having fun,
they're engaging with each other. But what I don't see,
and I asked the teacher that, and I always go
back to when I was a kid, why are they
not just writing and writing and writing and and getting

(20:55):
it and perfecting their writing and exercise books the way.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Here's a quick question for her both Actually, just on
the masks, there'd be some people who say, well, how
important is it to actually understand maths. I mean, don't worry.
I'm not on the school of thought. But people think
I could stick it to a calculator. My computer will
do the job. What do I need to understand that? Why?
For you, Steve, is that important for your kids to
understand numerocy and to be literate in that sense numerals.

Speaker 5 (21:22):
Because it enhances the IQ that he's been given. Right,
you're limited to an IQ, but you actually have to
use that IQ, and you may not use that mathematics
per se later in life. Yeah, there will be Pewter
computer programs do a lot of that. But look, we're
going to head into a very very I think dystopian

(21:42):
future is going to be less job, far more people
looking for the work. And look, it's going to be
sort of the higher level types of jobs to computer engineering,
computer sciences. I think the kids who don't have these
and the kids are going to be looked at. You're
going to be a lot must types who are going
to want the best of the criminal creme, right, and
if they're going to get you, the way he's going

(22:03):
to ascertain that is through your mathematics analytical capability.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Totally true. For example, I had someone who sent me
an invoice and that was five hours forteen minutes plus
two hours twenty five minutes. So they added it and
they made it seven point six five hours where it
should have been eight hours five minutes. So like basic
things you can't add on the calculator. It's like forty
plus twenty five is not sixty five or point sixty five.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
Hey, thanks for your course. Step. You look at the
whole thing about numeracy. To me, it's a bit like
it's learning. There's certain dextrousness that your brain should have
numerous e literacy. It's not the fact that you can
get it, you can do it through at all. It's
the fact that your mind I think should have that dexterity. Otherwise,
where are we hitting. We're just going to be standing
in front of a screen like vegetables R eight hundred

(22:51):
eighty ten eighty Your thoughts on this, Sam, Hello, Well.

Speaker 6 (22:55):
You're sollow to hi everybody. If I just want to
reiterate on the fact as well, you know just what
the previous caller said as well. So I've got a
daughter who's in year three and we've engaged in you know,
like education based APTS as well, so literally what I
want to speak about is that education doesn't actually stop
at school, like obviously school to say, but we do

(23:18):
need something off where the kids can come home and
actually do some sort of homework or you know, something
that you know they have to take to the school
next day, so that actually engages them, you know, to
do more things as well, because essentially what the app
based learning is doing is technically, you know, finding something
for them to do what over and above what the

(23:38):
school is doing at school as well. I've actually literally
you know, like once a week sit down and find
workbooks and worksheets online too, you know, so that my
daughter can do five days a week of homework.

Speaker 4 (23:49):
That's totally true because at the end of the day,
you need to see that the school has a very
big role to play. And there have been times when
when my son is going to school and when my
daughter has gone to school, they feel very bored and
dejected after coming home. They feel that, Okay, the teacher
is not giving them anything challenging. The teacher is struggling
whether to focus the time on the children who are struggling,

(24:11):
or the children who are average, or the children who
are doing well. So when they go there, the children
can do very complex math sums. But if the teacher
gives them what is five times seven and they come
home and they say, we've wasted a time at school.
So there needs to be a method, Warren. The teacher
is able to give the right kind of sums or
the right kind of exercises to the children so that

(24:33):
they feel motivated and they are still challenge.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Learning has to be fun. Yeah, hey, thanks to your call, Sam.
I remember when I I still remember the name of
my teacher from primary school and this isn't write a
primary is deco too probably, but we were lucky. We
hit in factive here and he might old classmates and listening,
they will remember this teacher. His name was mister Paul
and he was actually a fantastic teacher. He was good, fun,

(24:56):
but he had One of the things we did was
we had a maths letter, a challenge letter. It was
like a sports competition and you could only challenge the
person who is one or two above you, and we'd
all go, it's been an hour on this each day,
and we'd be challenging and we'd have a competition and
you'd go around and the kids would try and give
you the timestable challenge like TI one hundred and thirty two,

(25:19):
and we made it. But his learning was fun. And
every kid and that class, even the ones who struggled
with numerous a little bit, they learned because they had fun.
And I mean, in the end, if it's not fun,
it's probably a bit more of a more of a push,
Isn't it really fun?

Speaker 4 (25:36):
Like you said, challenge fun plus the challenge the feeling
because we're driven by eagles and even children have egos.
It's not the big ego, but it's the feeling of
doing something better than someone else when you have competition.
That really helps.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Although also doing better than you did it yesterday exactly,
which is the other thing intrinsic reward. Yeah, yeah, hang on,
let me just check the time. Tell you what we will.
We will take the break and we'll come back with
more calls. And just to tick my guest is hard
pret Sing. His website for the program that they offer
is sip Abiicus dot co dot nz. You go and

(26:13):
check out that out if you'd like to go and
have a look. It is twenty four and a half
minutes to six s Newstalks. They'd be with Tim bevers.
My guess is Harpret Sing. He's the founder of sip
Abicus New Zealand. It's a numeroucy primarily with a bit
of some literacy as well. And what's the key to
getting our kids more mumerate? Numerate numerically literate would be

(26:34):
the word words.

Speaker 5 (26:36):
Peter, Hello, greetings.

Speaker 7 (26:39):
Well I often ask all age groups, you know, what's
the first number?

Speaker 8 (26:44):
Ten?

Speaker 7 (26:44):
And if you put another zero behind that, what's that?
And then I asked them, now, if you take one
away from it, what is the number? Or if you
add one to it, what is the number? And I'm
amazed at how many age groups actually don't know what
the story is, you know, verbally, not doing it on paper.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Just how did you how did you learn mats? Peter?

Speaker 7 (27:08):
Oh well, my father said, if you wanted to watch
TV and you didn't know your tables, you would not
be watching TV.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Oh well that's actually maybe if you will not have
any time on your device arperate, if you don't, I
don't know what's your any comment to add to Peter? There? Sorry,
I turn your mic on. There we are, Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
That for example, being on the TV and spending some
time on the TV. Yes, but at the same time,
how much time do you want to try to spend
on the TV is a question?

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Anyway, Hey, thanks for you call, Peter. Let's go to Jeff.

Speaker 8 (27:47):
Hello, Yeah, good evening. I've been listen about this education.
We seem to me, on the on the time, there
seemed to be a big hole was fallen onto the
education system. Well like when when when my sons went
to school. They've all growing up now, but you know,

(28:12):
they were taught god, basical mathematics, taught how to read
and write, taught a lot of things, and I think
all of that got them through because if your look,
if you look at the jobs that are that are advertised,

(28:34):
the kids academically would not be brainy enough to do it,
you know, to take these jobs. And there's a lot
of kids that can't get in as tradees because of
the because of the work, and a lot of kids
are I think I'll get a bit discouraged now to me,

(28:55):
you know, there's no it seems to me that there's
no basic mass basic.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
Yeah, that's very true that what's happening today is like
the education system is quite weak and the children are struggling.
I was with some thirteen year olds today morning. They
had come for a trial class, and I asked them
what is eight plus five? And they were counting on
their fingers eight, nine, ten, and they took about six
to seven seconds just to count from eight to thirteen.

(29:25):
So today's literacy system, children are struggling and they surely
need a better education system.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
Do you know what the difference is why some schools
would have fantastic results and why others are struggling? What
do you think the difference is?

Speaker 4 (29:41):
Like you said correctly earlier that the parents, they need
to spend some time with the children, and in a
lot of schools the parents are very focused on the education.
Not only the parents, the schools are also doing a
lot of extra efforts in educating the children, and they're
giving them some challenges which they need to meet. If
they don't meet the challenges, they give them some homeworker
stuff to take home what they have to do before

(30:02):
they can qualify for the next grade.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
All right, let's take some more calls. Paul, Hello, Hello, Paul,
Paul's gone to sleep. I think Paul, I think you
might have just put his phone down to make a
cup of tea for a second, I guess, for instance,
I mean your program s ip A, because that's that's
something that people pay for, right and you do trials

(30:26):
and things like that. But what about I mean, what
do you think the solution is for not everyone can
afford to spend extra money. We've had a free public
education system, we've got a minister who's introducing standards and benchmarks.
Are you optimistic that we're heading in the right direction
in that respect?

Speaker 4 (30:45):
It really nice to see that. For example, n CEA
A Year one, which was based on credits, et cetera.
Now it's being replaced by the Foundation Skills of OD
and the current year eights. When they're going to year eleven,
they're going to have this literacy and numeracy confident which
is going to be compulsory for them. So now it
won't be like you can just keep around mats. You

(31:06):
have something, you have to do, something that is essential.
That's going to be Why do they call this Foundation
Skills of ARD because these are the foundational skills you
need in your real life. So when they're going to
be going through that, they will take mathematics more seriously
and that is going to result in extra effort on
the behalf of the parents features and children. It is

(31:27):
not just the parents alone. It's not just the children alone.
Everyone needs to play a role in the numeracy and
the literacy of the children improvement.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
I think, you know, I think, I mean, you're right.
And it's the temptation when we see headlines like this
is that people want to play a blame game. And
it's not really about that, is it. It's just it's
trying to find things that we can do pro you know,
be more proactive rather than going I mean, okay, there
are some parents who do a brilliant job with their kids,

(31:56):
and there are some parents who probably use the cell
phone as the babysitter. Okay, they probably not need to
do that, but there's got to be a way of
doing it, so we're not just going around blaming and
criticizable all the time. I mean, what's your what's your thought?
What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 4 (32:12):
Very true? It's like the parents have a very critical
role to play. The children need guidance, and that guidance
comes from the parents as well as the teachers. So
if the children need something, they need to be given
something like some worksheets, and there are a lot of
available resources on the internet which the children can use,
which will really help them to improve further.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
What's your maths?

Speaker 8 (32:36):
Like?

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Does your daughter better than you?

Speaker 4 (32:39):
All our children within six months are better than an
average adult. So if I ask a.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Child, are you the average adult for it?

Speaker 4 (32:45):
I am the well, no, I was much better than
the average adult. I had won some awards back in
my day. But a child who was with us for
less than a year can calculate like what's twenty four
plus thirty seven plus fifty six plus sixty nine plus
eighty three plus eventy two plus eighty nine in less
than two seconds without using a calculator?

Speaker 3 (33:05):
Sounds pretty flash. I can't even say it that quick.
What's your what do you? What's your I've got a
text here? What's your view on Sweden? Going back to
old school use of textbox rather than devices at school?
Because the thing is, devices are a part of our
lives full stop, aren't they.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
Let me ask the question in a different way. If
I wanted to learn about penguins and Antarctica, would you
book a ticket for your child to go there? Or
would you watch a video?

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Is that something you prepared earlier? Hey? Great TV? On
the show. By the way, how did you end up coming?
I know that this is the s ip Ebochus, which
is your business where you offer tutoring in person. How
does it work?

Speaker 4 (33:47):
We have seven centers across New Zealand, including five in
Auckland in Hamilton as well as christ Church. We do
online as well, and we're also running classes in Australia.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
And if you didn't have the money to pay for
of course, what would you be.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
Doing if I personally didn't have that money, Say, if
you were.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
One of those parents who just wants their kids to
do better at me.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
Like I said, I would go down to the old
school way of workbooks or there are a few apps
as well that are available on phones which the children
can use to practice them mad skills, practice, mixed perfection,
good stuff.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
Hey Harprey, thank you so much for coming in. Nice
and nice to meet you. And i'd say you also
put down that blimen cell phone. Was I think that's
what you started with. Really, get rid of the distractions
is the first thing.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Produce them.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yeah, if you missed any of this hour, you can
go and check it out. If you're interested in in
the business at Harprech runs its s ip abacus dot
co dot nz and they have trial classes you can
sign up to for you kids, if you want to
check that out. We'll be back with Superman's next with
us Christopher Reeve where we'll be wrapping sport and maybe
he's I think he's going to manage to make it

(34:51):
into the studio despite his full lorn status as a
Taranaki supporter because they've lost the shield. But I'm pretty
sure Christopher Reeve will be with us very he's put
his jack on his card. Okay anyway, and thanks to
heartbread saying we'll be back in just a moment. It
is twelve and a half minutes to six News TALKSB.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
For more from the weekend collective, listen live to News
Talks EDB weekends from three pm, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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