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# The Best Way to Solve a Problem Is to Hide the Data
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-best-way-to-solve-a-problem-is-to-hide-the-data/
- Published: 2022-10-06T19:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2022-10-06T02:28:30.000Z
- Author: Guest Post
- Tags: Education, NZ, NZ Politics, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-16 22:48

**Alwyn Poole**  
[alwynpoole.substack.com](https://alwynpoole.substack.com/p/labours-education-strategy-the-best?utm%5Fsource=profile&utm%5Fmedium=reader2)

*Alwyn Poole founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. MH Academy is now an in person private school for Year 11 – 13\. There is now a nationwide online provision called [Mt Hobson Academy Connected for Years 1 – 13.](https://www.mthobson.school.nz/?ref=goodoil.news)*

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At a systemic level education is in crisis in New Zealand. Often this has been sensed but the Ministry and Government work so hard to keep data/rankings/effects of policy from the public that often people can only speak in anecdotes.

Chris Hipkins says that the decline in attendance began in 2015\. It did a wee bit – however, the decline has been so massive under Labour he is simply deflecting. Under National, there was a relatively quickly solvable trajectory. He has flown the plane into a stalled dive.

> From Term 2 2019 to Term 1 2022 – decile 1 full attendance declined from 37% to 22%. All other deciles declined also.

When questioned in the House on this Jan Tinetti stated that Term 1 data was far less relevant than Term 2 data and that Term 2 data will show the effect of their wonderful policies.

It took less than 11 weeks from the end of Term 1 to get anonymised attendance data for NZ schools through Education Counts.

Because the data is so important and a number of people, including myself, have been asking for the Term 2 attendance data there has been a flat refusal to release it with the latest answers saying “November” – approx. **19 weeks** after the end of Term 2\. There can be no reasonable explanation for it taking at least 8 weeks longer. An unacceptable delay from the most transparent government ever.

Sometimes they pre-load this hiding of policy effects. With the new Equity Index (EQI) numbers to determine funding for schools – there is no requirement for schools to inform the Ministry and/or taxpayer on what they will spend extra money on. There is also no requirement to show improvement across a range of measures.

Hipkins says this change to EQI numbers is bi-partisan because National started the change away from deciles. That is true but I would pretty much guarantee they would have had goals, measures and incentives – and a much greater opportunity for improvement for students. By not having public measures schools will now be known by a number that indicates the proportion of students at risk in their population. More stark than deciles were.  
  
Labour has become the anti-education party.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/screen-shot-2022-10-06-at-2.21.19-pm.png)

Image Credit: [alwynpoole.substack.com](https://alwynpoole.substack.com/p/labours-education-strategy-the-best?utm%5Fsource=profile&utm%5Fmedium=reader2)

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