About This Report
Aotearoa New Zealand’s education system is at a defining moment. There is understandable urgency around lifting achievement, strengthening foundational learning and ensuring that young people leave school with the knowledge and qualifications they need. Alongside it sit deeper questions such as what education is for, what conditions allow learning to flourish, and whether the system we are building is fit for the world our young people will inherit.
Drawing on what is happening across the sector, and on the blog posts and thought pieces I have published in recent months, I have identified twelve major issues and challenges. Some are immediate operational pressures; others are longer-term strategic challenges that will shape education in Aotearoa for a generation.
The Government’s current priorities (curriculum clarity, literacy and mathematics, assessment and reporting, workforce development, learning support and the use of evidence) matter, and progress on them deserves support. The challenge is to make that progress while also addressing the broader educational, social and systemic issues that shape learning.
That is the argument at the heart of this paper. The twelve issues are not separate problems; they are interconnected parts of one system, and they cannot be resolved within a single political term, or even two. Responding to each with a short-term fix tends to compound the others. Lasting progress will require a long-term, cross-party commitment.
Each section explains why an issue matters and closes with two questions to provoke conversation in your own context: one about change at the level of the local school, the other at the level of national policy. The final section draws the threads together and makes the case for that long-term commitment.
The future of our nation and the lives of our tamariki are too important to be left to chance. My hope is that this paper will widen and deepen the conversations happening around the motu, help lift them beyond short-termism, and offer a starting point for what we need to do together after the election.
Preview and download the paper below…
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