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Chris Baillie
ACT Education spokesperson
The Government’s newly-announced Curriculum Advisory Group boasts that it ‘represents the interests of all parts of the education system,’ but they forgot the rest of society.
The Group has all sorts of people who work in education, but it doesn’t have anyone education is supposed to work for. Employers regularly complain about the skills of students entering the workforce, but there is no representation from employers.
There are many wonderful charities that help people with topics such as financial literacy, but the Curriculum Advisory Group does not include them.
How is the Group supposed to provide insight into what is working and what needs to change?
We should be worried about the low rates of science, technology, engineering and maths qualifications in New Zealand. There is nobody representing science or engineering on the Curriculum Advisory Group.
By stacking it with teachers and education faculty academics, the Group has a good representation of educators but no representation from the people education is actually for: the rest of the society. It shows a Government beholden to the providers of social services rather than the outcomes for the taxpayer.
The appointment of this Group is a missed opportunity and a window into the minds of this Government. In appointing groups such as this, ACT would reach out to people regardless of ideology and politics, to make sure that the best people are around the table for the benefit of New Zealand.
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