NZEI pressures Pearson to review its business strategy

<h3>NZEI Te Riu Roa has joined 100 other international organisations in opposing the business practice of the global education giant Pearson&comma; which it says is damaging children’s education around the world&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>National secretary Paul Goulter is in London attending the Pearson AGM where many shareholders will be using their voting rights to request that Pearson reviews its business strategy&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is clear that Pearson has the wrong business model&period; Not only is it harming children’s education&comma; it is also fundamentally flawed and that’s why the company’s shares have taken a nosedive recently&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He says Pearson has evolved from being a respected provider of educational resources into a multi-national corporation that bases its business model around influencing government policies in order to profit from the production&comma; supply and evaluation of high stakes testing as well as privatising schooling in developing countries&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This has not been working for Pearson and it’s certainly not working for children’s education&period; It is wrong to use children in the developing world as guinea pigs in an experiment replacing teachers with technology used by classroom technicians&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Pearson needs to get back to what it does best&period; It needs to work in collaboration with educators to provide quality resources that will assist teachers in the classroom instead of trying to corporatise education for profit&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Investors around the world are being asked to support the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;mediareleases&period;cmail20&period;com&sol;t&sol;r-l-ekudydt-dkehkkyid-n&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">resolution<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NZEI has asked the Guardians of the NZ Superannuation Fund to use their influence as Pearson shareholders to support the resolution at Pearson’s AGM that it &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;conducts a thorough business strategy review… including education commercialisation and its support of high stakes testing and low-fee private schools and to report to shareholders within six months”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>New Zealanders are being asked to sign up to the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;mediareleases&period;cmail20&period;com&sol;t&sol;r-l-ekudydt-dkehkkyid-p&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">global campaign<&sol;a> to tell Pearson that all children deserve a quality public education&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;