Minister's introduction
It's my first week back from holiday and a busy week in the education portfolio.
A number of announcements made this week cover issues at the heart of education, like the NEMP report in reading and speaking. I'm sure many schools are also interested in the consultation process that ERO is conducting as a follow up to the recommendations from last year's review of the office. You can read about these below.
Next week, I'll be taking part in the Catching the Knowledge Wave conference in Auckland. I'm sure I visit more conferences than most people reading this newsletter do. But most of the time it's as a guest speaker and I rarely get to stay for more than a couple of hours.
Catching the Knowledge Wave is a key event in the Government's exploration of new ways to create future economic prosperity and social well-being. Education is crucial to this so I will be attending the entire conference as a participant. It's caused me to think carefully about what we hope to achieve out of this conference and how that will impact on my work as Education Minister. Often people learn a great deal at conferences and are really inspired by some of the guest speakers. The challenge is then to take that new knowledge and inspiration and put it to practice in 'real' life.
There's a phenomenal range of speakers at next week's conference. People like Jilly Evans, the Hawke's Bay-born global director of pharmacology for the medical research and pharmaceutical company, Merck. She plans to use a lot of her time here to encourage secondary school students to consider careers involving maths and science subjects. Others, such as the Xerox's chief scientist Dr John Seely Brown are not only at the forefront of business development, but are also internationally recognised for their contribution to theories of radical innovation and how people learn best.
Speakers like Professor Nitin Desai, UN Under-Secretary for Economic and Social Affairs, and Sally Shelton-Colby the Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD will help us place New Zealand in an international context.
My challenge is to learn from the ideas speakers of this calibre present and then adapt their lessons to help us develop and implement the policy we need to inspire economic transformation.
It's an exciting challenge and I look forward to keeping you up to date with developments.
Trevor Mallard
Minister of Education
Property Announcements
Nearly $400 million will be committed to new work at state schools over the next twelve months, Education Minister Trevor Mallard said today.
This includes $253 million for new projects at schools in the five year programme, $10 million for nearly 300 projects at 245 schools in the Financial Assistance Scheme and modernisation funding for 80 schools.
Full details will be available on the Ministry of Education website from
4pm today.
Top News For Literacy
New Zealand children aged up to 12 are more literate than they were in 1996 according to the four-yearly publication Reading and Speaking, Assessment Results, 2000 is from the National Education Monitoring Project.
Education Minister Trevor Mallard said he was delighted with the results but says Government will encourage even further improvement.
"They're really positive results which are a tribute to some of the excellent work that is going on in New Zealand schools. But there is always room for improvement and that's why I have asked that the expected standards for the next monitoring cycle be lifted even further.
"For example, at the moment we expect an eight-year-old to read at 'band 2' and nearly ninety per cent of them reach that goal. I want our expectation to be that eight-year-old children read at 'band 3'. I also want the project to work on finding out what the most able students can achieve to put in place higher standards.
Also released this month are reports on Music, and Aspects of Technology. All three reports will be used by schools and the Ministry to focus on lifting student achievement in these areas.
The reports can be found at nemp.otago.ac.nz
Education Bill Reported Back To Parliament
The Education Amendment Bill No 2 was reported back to Parliament this week following the select committee hearing.
Changes recommended by the Committee include calling the Education Council the New Zealand Teachers Council and recognition of the importance schools placed on existing school charters. The committee's decision was to retain the name school charter.
The new charters will keep those elements that define the school's identity and mission, coupled with the new planning and reporting requirements.
Substantive debate in Parliament on this bill is likely to be some weeks
away.
Ero Consultation Process
Schools are being asked to comment on changes to the way they are reviewed by the Education Review Office. Information from ERO has been posted to all schools this week.
Education Minister Trevor Mallard said the process followed the recommendations made by the ERO Ministerial Review Committee earlier this year.
"As a result of that review, ERO is revising the way it carries out reviews in schools and schools are being asked to contribute to that process," Trevor Mallard said.
Proposals sent to schools for comment look at a more participatory and flexible approach that would include discussion of priorities identified by the school that could be included in a review; schools' nominating their own representative to be part of the review; and a framework to make it easier for schools to see what they are doing well and where they need to improve
Keep up to date on this issue at: www.ero.govt.nz.
Improving Qualifications In Early Childhood Education
The Government's programme for improved qualifications in early childhood education gained further impetus this week with the announcement that that five training providers have been contracted to assist up to 1,500 current staff to gain a Diploma of Teaching Early Childhood Education.
The Auckland College of Education, Waiariki Institute of Technology, Wellington College of Education, Te Tari Puna Ora O Aotearoa/New Zealand Childcare Association and the Christchurch College of Education have all signed agreements to provide assessments and flexible study programmes.
Trevor Mallard said the Government had made $2.25 million available for the initiative. The funding is in addition to incentive grants and scholarships announced earlier.
Minister Welcomes Primary Settlement
Education Minister Trevor Mallard welcomed the settlement of the primary teacher and principal collective agreements as a triumph of good process leading to great outcomes.
"The settlements reflect the importance of primary teachers as professionals, and principals as their professional leaders," Trevor
Mallard says.
"Primary teachers and principals have negotiated more than just pay settlements. They have negotiated terms and conditions that will help teachers and principals excel, and therefore help enhance learning outcomes for students."
E Learning Panel
Associate Education Minister Steve Maharey has announced an expert panel to
advise the government on how the tertiary sector can best use the new
learning technologies particularly in the area of e-learning,
The E-Learning Advisory Group, chaired by Open Polytechnic Chief Executive
Shona Butterfield, will report to the government by the end of this year on
how to develop e-learning capacity in tertiary education. Allocation was
made in Budget 2001 for this purpose.
Further info:
www.executive.govt.nz
Record Number Of Foreign Fee Paying Students
A statistical overview of foreign fee paying students in New Zealand shows that the export education industry is well on target to achieve foreign exchange earnings of $1 billion by 2005.
The report shows that last year the sector added around $700 million to the country's GDP.
The report can be obtained via the Statistics section on the Ministry's web site at www.minedu.govt.nz
Moratorium On Ptes
A moratorium, which has come into effect this week, prevents new private training providers from accessing public tuition subsidies and the student loans and allowances schemes.
Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey said the moratorium will apply to new private training establishments (PTEs) seeking funding and to applications by existing publicly funded private providers to mount new qualifications or to significantly alter qualifications currently offered. The moratorium will not apply to Training Opportunities, Youth Training, Skill Enhancement and English for migrants programmes administered by Skill New Zealand.
The moratorium will remain in place until the 2003 academic year.
More info: www.executive.govt.nz
CONTACTS AND SUBSCRIPTION
Receive Wise Up by e-mail
Hon Trevor Mallard - Minister of Education
Fax: 04 495 8448 e-mail: tmallard@ministers.govt.nz
Hon Steve Maharey - Associate Minister of Education (tertiary)
Fax: 04 495 8443 e-mail: smaharey@ministers.govt.nz
Hon Lianne Dalziel - Associate Minister of Education (special education; transport)
Fax: 04 495 8463 e-mail: ldalziel@ministers.govt.nz
Hon Marian Hobbs, Associate Minister of Education
Fax: 04 495 8467 e-mail: mhobbs@ministers.govt.nz
Hon Parekura Horomia - Associate Minister of Education (Maori education)
Fax: 04 495 8457 e-mail: phoromia@ministers.govt.nz
