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August 4, 2024 8 mins

Yes, the maths. You know, I know we've been talking about this, that we have been failing our children for decades now.

This is not a previous Government issue, this is not of their making. This has been a long time coming.

Where New Zealanders used to assume a world class education as their birth right, where anybody who was educated in New Zealand could stand amongst the brightest minds in the world, now we've had successive generations of children falling behind in every metric.

The numbers have been there. But instead of using the international results that have consistently put us at the bottom or near the bottom of the class, the educators, the boffins who make decisions about what our kids learn and how they learn and what our teachers teach, have refused to accept that their ideology is flawed, that their experimentation with our children has failed.

Instead, they phaff around and say that testing is outmoded and an old patriarchal colonial construct, and not the best way to assess a child's abilities and the like. Utter, utter nonsense.

In 2021, the Ministry of Education commissioned a report on our math syllabus, in the face of two decades of slipping maths results, and that's by both international and national measures. So it asked a panel of independent experts convened by the Royal Society to look at the New Zealand Curriculum, which outlines what kids need to know and when, to see if it was fit for purpose.

The conclusion? Massey University distinguished Professor of Maths Gaven Martin, who was chair of the panel that wrote the report told the New Zealand Herald our maths education was a 'goddamn mess'. Pretty unequivocal. The system was widening the gap between rich and poor children and left Māori and Pasifika children falling behind at school and ultimately falling behind in life.

And you know it, and I know it. You'll have heard the calls from so many parents and grandparents who are paying through the nose to send children to private tuition companies, to either get their kids the education in maths that they're not getting at school, or to give them the extra stimulus because they're good at maths and want to be better, that overworked and underprepared teachers simply cannot give them.

So Labour knew there was something wrong under Helen Clark, and National knew under John Key, and Labour knew under Jacinda Ardern, and now this coalition Government knows that there is something terribly wrong with how we're teaching our kids.

Christopher Luxon has moved to introduce structural maths for students 0-8 a year earlier than intended, after new data showed just 22 percent of Year 8 students in New Zealand reached the benchmark for maths. That's the bare minimum. And only 22 percent of them reached that benchmark. He said it amounts to a crisis - and Minister for Education Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking she agrees.

"We've compared ourselves to other countries who are doing a much better job than us, who have been actually climbing the ranks in the OECD, whereas we've been dropping for many, many years and I don't believe for a second that there are some people who just can't do math. That is completely untrue."

"Everybody can do maths. It's just the confidence and having wonderful teachers and great curriculum and great resources. And we've seen other countries like Singapore and Australia and the UK surge ahead because they have those things right and we don't and we are going to get them right under this Government."

"And I tell you what, I have been around the country for the last couple of years talking with principals of high schools and primary schools, and they all agree that we have a massive problem in maths. Nobody agrees with the Union apart from the Union, and I don't think we should be listening to them. High school principals tell me when I walk in the door, Erica, the first thing we have to do with our year nin

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carrywood of morning's podcast from News
Talks d B.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yes, the maths. You know, I know, we've been talking
about this, that we have been failing our children for
decades now. This is not a previous government issue, This
is not of their making. This has been a long
time coming. Where New Zealanders used to assume a world
class education as their birthright, where anybody who is educated

(00:35):
in New Zealand could stand amongst the brightest minds in
the world. Now we've had successive generations of children falling
behind in every metric. The numbers have been there, but
instead of using the international results that have consistently put
us at the bottom or near the bottom of the class,

(00:58):
the educators, the boffins who make decisions about what our
kids learn and how they learn, and what our teachers teach,
have refused to accept that their ideology is flawed, that
their experimentation with our children has failed. Instead, they faf
around and say that testing is outmoded and an old

(01:21):
patriarchal colonial construct and not the best way to assess
a charm's abilities and the like, utter utter nonsense. In
twenty twenty one, the Ministry of Education commissioned a report
on our math syllabus in the face of two decades

(01:43):
of slipping maths results, and that's by both international and
national measures. So it asked a panel of independent experts
convened by the Royal Society to look at the New
Zealand curriculum, which outlines what kids need to know and when,
to see if it was fit for purpose. So it
was back in twenty one the conclusion. Massi University Distinguished

(02:05):
Professor of Maths, Gavin Martin, who was chair of the
panel that wrote the report, told the New Zealand Herald
our maths education was a goddamn mess, pretty unequivocal. The
system was widening the gap between rich and poor children
and left Mary and Pacifica children falling behind at school

(02:26):
and ultimately falling behind in life. And you know it,
and I know it. You'll have heard the calls from
so many parents and grandparents who are paying through the
nose to send children to private tuition companies to either
get their kids the education in maths that they're not

(02:47):
getting at school, or to give them the extra stimulus
because they're good at maths and want to be better.
That overworked and underprepared teachers simply cannot give them. So
Labor knew there was something wrong unto Helen Clark, and
National knew under John he and Labor new under just

(03:07):
sinder Adourn and now this coalition government knows that there
is something terribly wrong with how we're teaching our kids.
Christopher Luxen has moved to introduce structural maths for STEGE
students zero to eight, a year earlier than intended, after
new data showed just twenty two percent of year eight

(03:28):
students in New Zealand reached the benchmark for maths. So
it's a bare minimum and only twenty two percent of
them reached that benchmark. He said it amounts to a crisis,
and Minister for Education Erica Stanford told Mike Coskins she agrees.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
We've compared ourselves to other countries who are doing a
much better job than us, who have been actually climbing
the ranks and the OECD, whereas we've been dropping for many,
many years. And I don't believe for a second that
there are some people who just can't do maths. That
is completely untrue. Everybody can do maths. It's just the
confidence and having one teachers and great curriculum and great resources.

(04:10):
And we've seen other countries like Singapore and Australia and
the UK surge ahead because they have those things right
and we don't. And we are going to get them
right under this government. And I tell you what, I
have been around the country for the last couple of
years talking with principles of high schools and primary schools,
and they all agree that we have a massive problem
in maths. Nobody agrees with the union apart from the Union,

(04:32):
and I don't think we should be listening to them.
To high school principles, tell me when I walk in
the door Ereica, the first thing we have to do
with our year nine or our third formerst is teach
them their timestables because they don't know them without fail
every high school they go into. So there is a problem,
and the unions can have their heads in sands, But
I'm going to move on despite that and implement our

(04:52):
plans because it has to happen.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
It really, really, really really does. We've talked about it
for far too long now.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
The leader of the Academy report back in twenty twenty
one said the real issues went beyond the curriculum to
the heart of how New Zealand educates its students, which ranged.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
From insufficient teacher knowledge to a system that labels kids
too early in life and doesn't give them the same
chance to succeed. Said, there needs to be a real shakeup,
but doubts that there is the political will. Currently, teachers
in schools have to pick and choose from a myriad

(05:33):
of options for both professional development and curriculum resources, and
that is true across many, many lessons, many subjects. So
if you want to learn history, you sort of go
to a resource and you make up your own lesson
planned basically based on the resource material that's there. It's
a lucky dip, a pick and mix, and that's for

(05:54):
all the lessons. The report calls for the Ministry of
Education to show more leadership in many areas, including giving
all schools access to the right resources that good upskilling
teachers and attracting math specialists to the profession. All of
that would be fantastic, and yet the Education Ministry employed

(06:18):
one thousand, seven hundred and four more staff in twenty
twenty three than it did in twenty sixteen. So the
addition of one thousand, seven hundred and four more staff
did exactly what for our kids. You know, it is
so so hard. If you struggled at school yourself, you

(06:42):
were one of the first generation to be failed by
New Zealand's education system. You have children yourself, You see
that they're struggling. How frustrating to feel powerless to be
able to help them, To see them following and your
footsteps and be denied opportunities that you were denied because

(07:02):
the education system failed first them, and now you you
can't help them. You don't know, and you can see
they're struggling and they look to you for help and
you can't give it, and that is just heartbreaking. And
you can't afford it. Your cousin might be married to

(07:24):
an incredibly successful chap or woman who have their own
incredibly successful company, and all three of their children go
to a private tuition company which costs them thousands of
dollars a year, and that's okay. They can shore up
the gaps in their knowledge because they can afford it.
But you can't. You simply can't. You haven't got the
thousands of dollars needed to put two kids through private

(07:47):
tuition companies, and so your kids continue to fall behind
while the kids who can afford the tuition get the
gaps in their knowledge short up and that is damn wrong,
so wrong. It goes against everything I believe about this
country and everything I believe about education.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
For more from Kerry Wood and Mornings and live to
news talks, it be from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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