Parting Shots — Lester Flockton and Terry Crooks on education — mp3
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 06:44PM Two giants of New Zealand’s much-admired public education system recently stepped back from major roles at Otago University and the National Education Monitoring Project.
Professor Terry Crooks (right) and Emeritus Director Lester Flockton
Sound bites
Terry's interview
Lester's interview
Professor Terry Crooks and Emeritus Director Lester Flockton took time to review their careers and share some insights on education. Both had trenchant comments to make on the current state of public education. Terry cites the most recent PISA results that show New Zealand in fifth place, out of 59 countries, for educational achievement in maths, science and reading literacy. It also tells us that New Zealand’s tail of ‘underachievement’ is 14–15 percent for primary education, compared with the OECD average of 21 percent.
“We don’t have dramatically more kids at the bottom end. A significant group of kids lose motivation in middle schooling and it is nothing to do with the grounding they have received in primary school.”
He saysit’s a mistake for government to base its primary school policy on what is happening at the upper end of secondary education.
Lester says the current situation is quite confused and has become highly politicised. “It is my view that the ministry has allowed academics to get far too close to their own policy-making and formulation of practice.
“There is not enough teacher voice or enough recognition of teacher voice. I see lots of teachers at work, and I see an enormous gulf in what people think teachers do, or what is realistic.”
Neither Terry nor Lester are departing the education scene entirely. Terry will take on a part-time role at
NEMP and Lester continues with an active schedule of speaking and consulting.
Reader Comments (1)
I just listened to Terry's podcast (?) and I was delighted to hear a voice of a distinguished educator
and understood now why NZ is now 5th in the PISA results.