So, Jan Tinetti, the latest iteration of a Minister of Education, turned up for an interview with Ryan Bridge. The education system is said to be in “a crisis of achievement and a crisis of attendance”. The current structure is not delivering the results we need as parents, as employers, as employees and as a country. But no, the Minister instead made wild claims about the success of a new programme that she claimed is having incredible results.
Learning is iterative she said. She can show (but of course she didn’t) that there is less remedial support now needed. Since when? Based on what inputs? And on what outcomes? Where? Who? How many?
When Ryan suggested she didn’t actually know the results she responded that she does know the results but didn’t want to give them in case she got them wrong (emphasis added). So she came along unprepared to demonstrate actual results that would prove her point because she is too stupid to get the results right. The results on which her Ministry depends. She might get them wrong. Pathetic.
If the Minister of Education cannot bring a factual report, then what hope is there for the pupils under this administration? Instead, she rambled on about the incredible result of one teacher in one school and very possibly just about one child. A six-year-old. At Tinetti’s old school. She was so excited and so happy and so amazed at the results. She could only have dreamed of such results whilst in her position as head of that school she said, proudly. One pupil. One teacher. One event. No empirical data to prove her point. Not a whiff of an Excel spreadsheet or a tabulated pivot table. Hardly the stuff of dreams.
To come to the interview without a shred of evidence to back up her girlish glee begs the question of her competence. Given a nationwide platform for her show and tell and to just tell a teeny bit and show nothing at all is a demonstration of stupidity. Even a 5-year-old knows to take along a spider in a jar with holes poked in the lid to get the attention of the class and to make the tell interesting. Any writer knows the need to show, not tell, in order to make a story compelling and memorable. But Jan Tinetti, yet another failed Minister of Education in the making, made a great show of showing nothing and telling nothing and hiding behind the teacher’s skirts because she was so excited and happy. Well, bully for you, Ms Tinetti but frankly, that was a massive fail – F – Dunce’s corner behaviour. It was embarrassing to watch. Ryan asked her to email or otherwise provide the proof of the pudding – let’s hope he doesn’t hold his breath waiting.
The interview began with the Whangarei Boys’ High School tragedy where a pupil drowned in the cave accident. From all accounts and the weather forecasts, it seems lucky that the loss was only one and not more. An expedition that should never have taken place. Which does make one wonder whether teachers should be left to mount such expeditions? It sure seems to have been a lapse in common sense to take kids into a cave system known to be exposed to flash flooding. Perhaps teachers should stick to the basics of mathematics, English and writing but then, under successive governments, these too seem to have become irrelevant so keeping students interested might need some out of classroom activities.
Ms Tinetti said there are questions to be asked as though stating the obvious is useful. The heartbreak and loss for all involved over one apparent error of judgement has resulted in tragedy.
Has the Minister of Education thought it important enough to warrant her contacting the head of WBHS? No. Not at that point. Had she contacted the parents? Well, err…no. Not at that point. But ‘her heart goes out to them, and she sends her thoughts to them.’ It was time, she said, “to wrap around the school.” “To wrap around the pupils.”
To what? What does it mean exactly, to “wrap around” ? The Minister of Education should surely have immediately made contact and expressed the whole country’s sympathy and her personal support.
From my point of view, the Ryan Bridge interview was not only embarrassing to watch, but it was offered proof that in many ways, the education sector is in real strife.
