Categories: Education

MOE rejects criticism levelled in education documentary

<h3>The Ministry of Education has defended its position on education in response to Bryan Bruce’s documentary World Class&quest; Inside NZ Education&period; An official statement from the Ministry stated&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This has raised some important points about what a good education system should look like&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It should encourage schools and teachers to work together to share their best ideas&comma; not compete with each other&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It should support kids to be all they can be&comma; no matter what background they’re from&period; And it should encourage creativity&comma; not conformism&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We agree&period; We would have liked the opportunity to explain to Bryan Bruce how schools and teachers around the country are working towards these goals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We would have made him aware of the biggest system change schooling in New Zealand has seen in 25 years&period;” The statement goes on to say that some local schools are at &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the cutting edge of these new Communities of Learning”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than 1000 schools with more than 320&comma;000 students are forming 117 such communities around New Zealand&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Ministry rejected the documentary’s message that the New Zealand education system &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;crushes creativity and encourages conformity”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This isn’t a cookie cutter education system – far from it&period; The New Zealand Curriculum is designed specifically to encourage students to be curious and inquiring&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The strength of our education system is that creativity is also blended with some objective measures so that we all can see what children and young people are learning&period;  Yes&comma; we want teachers and parents to have a clear idea of how each child at primary school is progressing&period; That’s why we have National Standards&period; And yes&comma; teenagers want to be able to leave school with qualifications that equip them for work or further learning&period; That’s why we have NCEA&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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