Claire Amos: Albany Senior High School Principal on the new subjects to be added to schools

There's concern there's a creep towards privatisation in a refreshed curriculum. 

The Government's overhauling senior secondary school subjects, with new options to be phased in from 2028. 

Vocational subjects including engineering, building, and construction will be industry-led. 

Principal of Auckland's Albany Senior High School Claire Amos told Ryan Bridge it could mean losing the benefits of a school-led approach. 

She says some of the most powerful vocational learning is happening in the context of schools meeting the needs of their distinct communities. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well Erica Stanford has released the subject's list. This is
the new subjects which will be included in the replacement
of NCEEA. I've got some new ones here for you.
Primary Industries will be a science subject you can take
in year thirteen. Electronics and Mechatronics is one you can
take in year twelve. That's under technology. Also automotive engineering,

(00:21):
Building and Construction, infrastructure engineering, mechanical engineering. You can take music, technology,
Sociology is new Civics, Politics, philosophy, Pacific studies or new subjects.
Claire Amos is the Albany Senior High School principal with
me this morning, Clear, Good morning, MORENNA. Good list.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
It's an interesting list. I have mixed feelings about the list.
The subject titles sound great, that there's a whole lot
of information about what sits behind them that I have questions.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Around, which I guess is I mean, would you expect
to have all the detail when they're just releasing the list.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, I'm interested that we've even got a list which
has had zero consultation, so this has come as a
bit of a bolt out of the blue. I recognize
it's an extension of the proposal to replace in CEA
and to provide some suggestions. You know, that's still supposedly
up for consultation and hasn't shouldn't be a facer complete
at this stage. So I think it's interesting that we've

(01:20):
been given a whole new senior subjects list without any
consultation at this stage, and we've got a whole lot
of new subjects, and we've got these VET subjects, which
I think are a really interesting thing to explore further
because they may actually present some issues for our sector.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
What VET subjects are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
So vocational education and training subjects. There's a whole lot
of new ones, some of them that you mentioned primary
industries and etc. Outdoor education is now a vocational subject.
What we know about vocational subjects is they're not going
to be funded for schools to necessarily resource and teach.
What they will do is they'll have an industry skills

(01:59):
board who will be developing the resources and potentially even
delivering the teaching and learning. And I've got a real
concern that this is a bit of a creep away
towards privatization of parts of our education sector, but also
that it takes it out of the context of school
some of the most powerful vocational teaching and learning at

(02:20):
the moment happens in the context of our schools, where
they're designing it to meet the needs of their very
distinct communities, such as rural communities.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Clear do you accept that NCAA has been failing students
and has been failing parents? And if you accept that,
then why does schools who are the ones that have
had the flexibility to run the system now need to
say on all in sundry with the replacement.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
I actually don't accept that NCAA is a failure. I think,
like every system, it has some points of weakness that
we need to address. But I actually believe we would
be far better off to improve the system that we have.
I kept thinking about the incredible amount of reasons, seeing
the amount of dollars it's going to create to not
only rewrite the curriculum for every single subject in that list,

(03:07):
because if we get the proposed changes to this new
Zealand Certificate of Education, that's going to require brand new
curriculum for every single subject, brand new assessment frameworks for
every single subject. That's huge resourcing. I think we need
to actually pause for a moment, step back and look
at what the real issue is. If we want to

(03:28):
raise literacy and numeracy and make sure that we're actually
raising the outcomes of all of our learners.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Where how can you you accept that we need to
do all those things which is clearly means it hasn't
been done, you know.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
No, it needs means we need to make improvements. One
of our most esteemed professors, Vivian Robinson, says, we need
to reduce change to increase improvement. And I worry that
if you're not an educator, simply rewriting the whole system
looks like a very neat and tidy solution when we
would be far better off investing in what we have

(04:05):
and improving it and advancing it.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
I'm not claient.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
It doesn't need to be improvements made, but let's work
with what we've got.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
I have delivered the clear amails at Albany Senior High
School principle. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to news Talks it be from five am weekdays,
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