Education

School principals launch full-page ad against Minister of Education

<h2>Nearly forty secondary school Principals have formed a coalition to challenge the Minister of Education&comma; Chris Hipkin’s review of NCEA&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>They published full-page advertisements in the national Sunday newspapers marking the Minister of Education’s review a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Fail” – and damning the process as rushed&comma; flawed and without proper consultation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Too rushed&comma; Minister Hipkins&comma; not enough thought&period; Must do better for our young people&comma;” the advertisement says&period; The list of nearly 40 Principals represents over 45&comma;000 students and the schools are from the private&comma; integrated and state sectors&comma; with the decile 1 – 10 schools united about one thing – they expect a better process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>They have stated&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are a coalition of Principals passionate about our young people and their secondary school education&period; We want the best possible education for the next generation – including a New Zealand qualification framework accessible to all students&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We agree a review of NCEA is necessary because the framework can be improved to better prepare our young people for the challenges ahead&period; However&comma; the review is flawed and we will not stand idle on the sidelines watching a fraught process pass us by&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>A coalition spokesperson Massey High School Principal&comma; Glen Denham&comma; says the breakaway group of Principals came together this past week out of sheer frustration with the process put in place by Minister Hipkins – and the action they say needs to be swift&period; Whilst the Principals in the coalition are currently Auckland based&comma; momentum is growing quickly and they are encouraging any Principal from around the country to join the action so they too can help effect change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These Principals are incensed and want the situation urgently addressed&period; The process is wrong&comma; the Minister is bulldozing this through and it is our young people who will pay the ultimate price&comma;” Mr Denham said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The timeframe is too short&period; The Government has allowed only sixteen weeks to review a national educational qualification for the next thirty years&period; Five weeks of the process has passed&comma; and still Principals have not been consulted&comma; rather they have been asked to act as ambassadors for a proposal they have had no input into&period; The process appears to be disingenuous&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We are the guardians of young people’s secondary education – we know what is important – and our collective input is essential&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Why would the Ministerial Advisory Group of seven have only one principal&quest;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Denham said the group was seeking a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;review of the review”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We want the Government to rewind&comma; reorder&comma; and reprioritise&comma;” he said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Let’s start with fixing what is broken – starting with quality teacher supply&comma; and work from there&period; If we don’t have a supply of quality teachers NCEA in any form is unsustainable&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Done properly – the review gives New Zealand an opportunity to be a world leader in secondary school education&period;” We owe it to our young people to it well&period; This process needs to be graded Excellence rather than Not Achieved&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;scoop&period;co&period;nz&sol;media&sol;pdfs&sol;1807&sol;NCEA&lowbar;full&lowbar;page&lowbar;ad&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank"><strong>A full copy of the ad can be seen by clicking here&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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