Education: Children & Young People

Go to the Education Policy Summary

Introduction

The Greens recognise that people learn in many ways - from hearing, seeing, feeling, and doing - and also from many different people; including our parents, our extended whanau/family, neighbours and communities, our teachers, and from others. We learn continually from our own life experience and from the intricate web of relationships that we weave with other humans and the myriad of other species with whom we share this planet. Formal education has a vital role to play in the life-long experience of integrating and understanding learning.

The Greens believe education is based on the fundamental understanding of two principles. The first is sustaining our interconnectedness to the earth and all the resources that provide us with sustenance, and the second is building relationships with each other that foster peace and co-operation while sharing resources. These purposes must be the foundation for education at all levels.

Formal education is only a small part of learning, but it is clearly an important process in helping learners develop to their full potential and prepare for life. Creating an environment that is conducive to learning by providing safe, decent housing, adequate incomes and meaningful work are as important to learning as the formal education system itself. For our detailed policies in these areas please refer to our Safe Food, Income Support, Housing, Children's, and Health policies on the Green Party website. Also, please see our detailed Student Support and Tertiary Policies.

The Green Party believes that education in its broadest sense is about helping each of us participate in the adventure of life. We want to see, applied throughout our education system, principles of effective learning that recognise the full potential of all learners and ensure that all learners get equal opportunities and fair recognition.

Vision

The Green Party envisions an education system in which:

• We develop and use the skills and abilities necessary to create a sustainable, co-operative, and inclusive society.
• We learn to solve problems creatively and cooperatively.
• We participate meaningfully in our communities and in a democratic Aotearoa/New Zealand.
• We take responsibility for caring for our world.
• We nurture learners' dispositions and skills to enable them to lead lives filled with hope, joy and satisfaction.
• We know the stories of our past and share a sense of national identity grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
• Maori have control of their education and contribute to the education of all New Zealanders.

Key Principles

The Green Party supports an education system that:

1. Develops all New Zealander's strengths, potential, natural desire to learn, and curiosity.
2. Works with learners to help them nurture and encourage the disposition and passion for lifelong learning and the skills that they need to participate in society.
3. Provides choices in education and access to a wide range of education programmes that meet the diverse needs and unique learning styles of individuals, as well as the needs of the whole community.
4. Encourages people to participate and take responsibility for their own learning and for helping others learn effectively.
5. Provides ways of living, working, playing and learning that accustom everyone to participate in society in ways that are sustainable, equitable and peaceful.
6. Celebrates diversity and is inclusive.
7. Acknowledges that there are no 'bad' learners, and that the education system needs to work for all individuals.
8. Is free and where access to learning opportunities is not restricted by ability to pay, or by geographical location.
9. Is characterised by high quality teaching, learning environments, and curriculum.
10. Incorporates Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a means to reduce racism and foster peace in our communities.

Specific Policy Points

1. Addressing Immediate needs

The 1989 reforms of Tomorrow's Schools have never been comprehensively reviewed. The failure to address the problems arising from those reforms has left the current management of public education seriously overworked and suffering from the dominance of 'management' over leadership and vision.

Public education remains seriously under-funded at all levels. In order to address this immediate crisis, the Green Party will:

1. Increase the Operations Grant by 10%.
2. Implement the Post Primary Teachers Association recommendations on NCEA from the Teachers Talk about the NCEA Report March 2005.
3. Continue to implement the recommendations of the Early Childhood Services Strategic Plan Working Group, in consultation with the sector.
4. Increase the ORRS (Ongoing Renewable Resource Scheme) funding to cover 2% of the school population as was originally intended under Special Education 2000.
5. Ensure the Special Education Grant (SEG) is adequate and can provide for the assistance that is needed for the actual number of special needs children in each school.
6. Complete the Staffing Review Group recommendations and then begin a programme of reducing pupil to teacher ratios in years 1-8.

2. A Way Forward - Commission of Inquiry

The past few years have seen small schools at the heart of local communities close their doors, and larger schools struggle to fund basic education services. Increases in class sizes, bullying in schools, difficulties in recruiting and retaining good teaching staff, and high - supposedly optional - public school donations, points to a system in crisis. In order to address current problems in the New Zealand education system, the Green Party will:

1. Establish a Commission of Inquiry into the New Zealand education system with a view to:
   1. Identifying and consolidating the strengths of the system.
   2. Addressing existing problems and inspiring positive change.
   3. Consulting widely and meaningfully with children, young people, parents, education specialists, teachers, teacher aides, unions, Boards of Trustees, and other stakeholders and providers in the education system.
   4. Examining the National Curriculum Framework and Te Whariki and making recommendations on how to improve learning experience and skill development that promotes non-violence and appropriate decision making, sustainable healthy living, and partnership with Maori.
   5. Reviewing the state's funding model of private schools to ensure consistency with Green Party principles.

3. Co-operation not Competition

The Green Party believes that cooperation, rather than competition, provides much healthier learning models and is the key to the delivery of quality education for learners.

The Green Party will:

1. Encourage the mixing and interchange of learners of varying ages. For example, many secondary schools have programmes where their learners help out at local primary schools or early childhood services.
2. Encourage partnerships between high and low-decile schools for their mutual benefit. This can include sharing resources, cooperative community projects, or shared programmes.
3. Facilitate mutual assistance and a community atmosphere by encouraging the physical placement of schools and early childhood services in close proximity to each other or on the same site, while recognising the developmental needs of children of different ages.
4. Encourage parent, whanau, and community participation in order to enhance the relationship between early childhood services and schools, and their communities.
5. Support and enhance the mutually beneficial relationship between schools, community organisations, and local businesses, to allow for the provision of student work experience and other learning opportunities.
6. Retain and actively support local and rural schools.

Community Learning Centres

One option to improve our education system is to develop community learning centres that can also include a variety of children and family support services so that multiple services and facilities are integrated.

7. Support schools as 'community learning centres' that offer learning opportunities for learners of all ages, and provide educational, art, sporting, recreational, and cultural resources for the community, including children and young people learning at home.

4. Environmental Awareness and Ecological Literacy

All New Zealanders need knowledge and skills to help develop a sustainable world. The structure of our education system needs to reflect principles of ecological literacy.

The Green Party will:

1. Incorporate environmental education (including energy efficiency and conservation) into the core curriculum at all levels and ensure that teacher education and training programmes allocate significant time for environmental education.
2. Support partnerships between schools, early childhood services, home based services, community organisations, and local councils, through innovative programmes such as 'organic gardens in schools' and 'enviro- schools'.
3. Establish permanent environmental education regional advisory positions and encourage the further development of national resources to develop ecological thinking across the curriculum.
4. Expand ERO reporting to include environmental education.
5. Ensure principles of sustainability, health and safety are employed in design, maintenance and management of schools.
6. Encourage home based services, schools and early childhood services to participate in environmental awareness projects with communities and regional and local councils; and help to develop an awareness in the community of the role schools can play in such projects.
7. Establish a national biodiversity education fund that will support school initiatives and programmes that directly improve biodiversity and the native environment.
8. Develop a national programme of action to support the UN Decade of Sustainability in Education.

5. Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Maori in Education

The Green Party recognises and respects Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the value of traditional learning systems of tangata whenua including kohanga reo, kura kaupapa and whare wananga. We support enhancing rangatiratanga in Maori education and funding Maori to contribute to education for all New Zealanders.

Our education system needs to provide opportunities for kaupapa Maori education as alternative learning institutions and to enhance kaupapa Maori throughout mainstream education. The Green Party recognises and wishes to enhance the rangatiratanga of Maori based organisations and representative groups in providing education for Maori.

The Green Party will:

1. Work with Maori based organisations and representative groups to develop a programme of enhancing rangatiratanga in Maori education at all levels, and provide adequate resources to support this.
2. Provide specific incentives to encourage teachers to train for and teach in kura, kohanga reo, full immersion and bilingual schools to meet demand.
3. Increase Maori Language Programme funding levels and funding for Maori Medium Education (immersion and bilingual programmes) to enable learners who wish to develop functional bilingualism.
4. Support community based initiatives for Maori language education to allow non school-age learners and those who study at home an opportunity to learn te reo Maori.
5. Support teacher professional development to strengthen assessment in kura and kohanga reo, and address individual learning needs (as identified by ERO).
6. Increase funding levels so that there are adequate resources in te reo for kura, kohanga reo, and other full immersion and bilingual learners.
7. Support Maori communities, whanau, hapu and iwi to work with schools so that:
   1. Children's participation at kura and kohanga reo is increased.
   2. Schools develop locally appropriate knowledge of tikanga Maori and teachers are supported to assist in developing cultural competencies in all schools and Early Childhood Services.

Kohanga Reo

Research shows that children who experience high quality early childhood services are more likely to flourish as learners. The Green Party will:

8. Support the continued expansion of kohanga reo (language nests) and kura kaupapa Maori to ensure Maori language is retained and Maori styles of learning and teaching are supported in an environment where wairua is integral.

Understanding our Culture

9. Support the comprehensive study of New Zealand history, including Te Tiriti o Waitangi, at all curriculum levels, in order to reduce racism and foster a sense of identity in our communities.
10. Work towards te reo and tikanga Maori being taught in all schools and available to all learners.
11. Investigate ways that kaupapa Maori can contribute to the mainstream education system.

6. School Funding

The Green Party will:

1. Provide resources for facilities and schools that wish to establish themselves as Community Learning Centres.
2. Improve demographic and population-based planning mechanisms to allow for better prediction of demand for early childhood services, schools, and their classroom requirements, while not disadvantaging rural communities.
3. Progressively increase operational funding to schools to meet the full cost of funding for every student, in addition to the 10% increase in Operational Grants.
4. Ensure that state funding levels are adequate to prevent the continuing commercialisation of education.
5. Change TFEA (decile funding) by:
   1. Increasing the overall funding of TFEA so that programmes in schools are adequately funded.
   2. Altering the funding formulas to avoid radical reductions in funding for mid decile schools.
   3. Reviewing the efficacy of TFEA with a view to a funding system based more strongly on the actual needs of learners and the community.
6. Continue to oppose the bulk funding of teacher and support staff salaries as it is inconsistent with the provision of high quality education for every student.
7. Enforce the current law that prohibits schools from demanding fees by extending the requirement of ERO reports to include an assessment of fees and donations.
8. Provide a tagged fund per school (outside the operations grants) for co-curricular, LEOTC (Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom) and local extra curricular activities to ensure that a learner's ability to pay does not exclude or restrict these educational opportunities and activities.
9. Revise and improve the funding system for early childhood services in consultation with the sector.
10. Review funding of special education with a view to increasing the SEG grant and establishing a criteria for targeting.
11. Fund special needs units attached to schools to ensure they remain a viable choice for parents of children with special needs.
12. Reduce the proliferation of contestable funds without reducing funding available to schools.

7. National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)

The present assessment controversies and confusion about NCEA qualifications are not productive and contribute to an uneasy learning environment for young people, their families and teachers. This situation needs to be immediately addressed. In addition to implementing the recommendations of the PPTA report, Teachers Talk about their NCEA, the Green Party will:

1. Evaluate the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), in consultation with teachers, tertiary educators, employers, parents and learners to improve its assessment practices and its implementation and refocus its purpose from the needs of employers to the needs of learners.
2. Develop easily accessible information for learners, parents, and employers to increase understanding of the NCEA.
3. Include a change to the implementation and assessment practice of NCEA so that it allows children to show a breadth and depth of knowledge rather than just performing isolated tasks.
4. Research and develop ways for NCEA results to become internationally recognised qualifications for our children.

8. Support Learning Environments

The Green party will:

Improve teacher-pupil ratios

1. Implement measures to provide maximum class sizes no greater than 20 through a reduction in pupil to teacher ratios for primary, intermediate and secondary schools to improve delivery of quality education for all children.
2. Implement early childhood services ratios of teachers to children of: 1:3 for under twos with a group size of no more than 6 children; 1:5 for two to threes with a group size of no more than 12 children; and 1:8 for over threes with a group size of no more than 24 children.

A culture of non-violence

3. Ensure that all schools and early childhood services have policies, practices, and programmes to create a whole school culture that is inclusive and supports the elimination of prejudice, racism, bullying intimidation, and violence.
4. Support and fund initiatives that create positive school and societal violence-free cultures, e.g. QPEC (Quality Public Education Coalition) Values in Schools Programme, GSE's Eliminating Violence Programme, the Peace Foundation's Cool Schools Programme, and the PPTA's Safe Schools Programme for queer students, whanau/family, and teachers.

Improving quality by sharing successes

5. Improve the resources provided for researching best practice in teaching to assist teachers to develop and extend their teaching strategies in order to enhance student learning.
6. Develop mechanisms to enable effective sharing of ideas and information across schools so that successful ideas and programmes can be more widely utilised.
7. Support teacher mentor programmes to assist new teachers in developing their individual approach to teaching diverse learners, and to support new teachers in identifying challenges as they arise.
8. Work for the changes necessary to permit effective intervention in schools identified by ERO as struggling or failing. This could include the provision of additional resources and the secondment of highly skilled principals and teachers into these schools to bring about immediate and long-term improvement.
9. Ensure that every school and early childhood centre has an inclusive education facilitator.
10. Improve funding for LEOTC (Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom) programmes to ensure that adequate resources are available for 'education outside the classroom' programmes in all curriculum areas to enhance recognition of the importance of this in the development of whole people and their relationship with the environment.
11. Provide adequate staff and resources to Reading Recovery Programmes, Group Special Education and to the Teachers of Learning and Behaviour Programme to address pupil difficulties and underachievement as early as possible and work with families (and any relevant social agencies) to attempt to alleviate the problems.
12. Work with schools, parents and communities to identify ways to ensure that no student misses out on education through absenteeism or suspensions, and that absentee learners are promptly contacted and appropriate services are provided.
13. Research, develop and increase the number of alternative programmes for absentee and suspended learners, such as the Otago Youth Wellness Trust, In-school Suspension Programmes.
14. Ensure learners have the right to not wear a uniform without penalty from the school, and are able to choose their own hairstyle and jewellery, subject to safety requirements.
15. Support the retention of rural and small schools and review school transport funding to provide better and safer transport services for rural learners.
16. Establish an independent tribunal to review the statutory powers of principals and Boards of Trustees in regards to enrolments, suspensions and stand-downs.

9. Teaching is Valuable

The Green Party believes that we must value and support our teachers, kuia, kaumatua, and others who teach, as they are crucial to the future of Aotearoa/New Zealand and the education of our children and young people. Research shows that enthusiastic teachers do make a difference. Teachers need to have the time and energy to be creative in pupil-focused activity rather then burdened with administrative demands.

The Green Party will:

1. Work with teacher unions to identify real changes that will make teaching a more attractive career choice and will attract mature teachers back into the profession.
2. Improve pay, job security, and provide professional development for teachers and aides.
3. Support pay parity for early childhood, primary and secondary educators, based on qualifications and responsibility.
4. Provide funding to increase the number of early childhood services' staff so that teacher to child ratios can be met.
5. Provide incentives such as school housing to enable teachers to work and develop their careers in rural/remote communities.
6. Provide professional development programmes to teachers so that they are able to teach a diverse population of learners.
7. After six years of service, teachers, including early childhood education teachers, will be entitled to a sabbatical leave for one year at 80% of their salary.
8. Develop initiatives that relieve the administrative workload of teachers.

10. Teacher Education and Training

The Green Party will:

1. Reduce the cost of tertiary education, including teacher education by:
   1. Capping and then progressively reducing student fees.
   2. Progressively introducing a universal student allowance.
   3. Introducing a debt write-off scheme so that, at the end of studies, each year the person stays in Aotearoa and contributes through paid or unpaid full time work, a year's worth of debt will be wiped. (see Student Support Policy for further details).
2. Support the introduction of clear milestones and standards for teacher education and training to ensure teachers meet competency requirements.
3. Ensure that personal behaviour management, conflict resolution and inclusive education are taught in mandatory papers in all pre-service teacher education and training programmes.
4. Develop competencies for all teachers to teach learners from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
5. Raise the awareness among primary teachers about the early childhood services so that there is an effective transition to the school environment for young learners.

Supporting teachers in te reo Maori

6. Increase the number of teaching places available for teachers of te reo, and provide specific incentives to encourage teachers to kura, full immersion and bilingual to meet demand (and to stay).
7. Support teacher professional development to strengthen assessment and address individual learning needs (as identified by ERO).
8. Support increased numbers of Maori advisers and resource teachers.
9. Support the critical role that kuia and kaumatua have within matauranga Maori.
10. Support the development of high quality kaupapa Maori teacher training so that it is appropriate to those intending to teach kohanga reo, kura or immersion and bilingual children.
11. Increase the number of places and scholarships available annually for the training of Maori teachers and teachers able to teach in te reo.
12. Increase funding for Professional Development for regular teachers to teach te reo to children with special needs.

11. Healthy Lifestyles and Life Skills

Schools and early childhood services centres can have a positive influence on children and young people's lifestyle choices and behaviour. Nutritional guidelines will be developed so that all food and drink sold in schools is healthy and nutritious and does not contribute to obesity, diabetes, or dental decay.

The Green Party will:

1. Promote teaching of nutrition, basic cooking, gardening skills, and the origins and production of food within the core curriculum.
2. Amend the National Education Goals and National Administration guidelines to promote healthy and nutritious eating.
3. Encourage learning by providing nutritious healthy foods and lunches in schools, school tuck shops, and vending machines. This will be also achieved by:
   1. Stopping the sale of fizzy drinks, sugary drinks, lollies, and chippies on school property.
   2. Installing filtered water systems in all schools.
   3. Creating productive and viable fruit and vegetable gardens at school.
   4. Extending the fruit programme to cover all primary schools and early childhood services.
   5. Establishing a cross-sector working party to investigate how free healthy breakfasts can be provided in all primary schools and early childhood services.
4. Encourage positive and healthy lifestyles, and discourage anti social and risk taking behaviour, by supporting the inclusion of developmentally appropriate health, sexuality, drug and substance abuse education at all levels of schooling.
5. Promote the teaching of conflict resolution skills to encourage children to avoid violence and to think in terms of cooperation, responsibility for behavioural choices, justice and reconciliation.
6. Encourage teaching of civics education: our parliamentary system, the law and human rights in order to better equip learners for life.
7. Provide information to schools on how they can take advantage of LEOTC or develop other programmes that teach care of animals, and encourage partnerships between schools and the SPCA and zoos.
8. Continue funding programmes which provide services to the family with an infant or toddler, such as Parents as First Teachers, Play Centre, family literacy programmes.
9. Provide education, services, and ways to encourage mothers to breast feed their children in early childhood services.

12. Reducing Underachievement

There are a wide range of educational outcomes for learners across most educational achievement indicators. The Green Party supports constructive interventions that improve students' self-esteem, meet learners' specific pastoral and educational needs, and develop their potential. Many of the reasons behind these gaps relate to policy areas outside of education, such as health, economics, and housing but there are opportunities to address these issues in education policy.

The Green Party would:

1. Evaluate initiatives aimed at addressing student underachievement and recommend solutions developed in concert with affected communities.
2. Provide special funding to identify and promote best practice across all schools to promote improvement in the learning, social, and cultural outcomes of students.
3. Annually monitor the performance of all schools in enhancing the learning, social and cultural outcomes of 'at risk' learners.

13. Diversity and Choice

The Green Party supports diversity and choices in educational options as a way of improving New Zealand's education system. Choices such as Steiner, Montessori, home schooling and democratic schools deliver a quality education to thousands of learners.

The Green Party will:

1. Support improved resources for community-based 'not for profit' early childhood services, including playcentre, kohanga reo, Pacific Island language nests and other culturally appropriate learning options.
2. Appoint staff in Advisory Services to represent the interests of significant cultural groups within our society, such as Pacific peoples and those from Asia.
3. Support schools that cater for special interest groups within society, as long as they maintain high teaching standards and deliver the core curriculum.
4. Expand alternative education programmes for young learners who are alienated from general educational settings, to include younger children (under age 13), those who feel alienated, and those whose educational philosophy is different from their school's philosophy.
5. Increase the number of teen parent support programmes.

Home Schooling

The Green Party supports alternatives to full-time school attendance, and the educational choices of over 6,000 children and young people who learn at home.

The Green Party will:

6. Ensure that the Ministry of Education develops a supportive and constructive review process to work with parents and learners at home.
7. Ensure that the Ministry of Education develops capacity in home based education, and requires that ERO reviewers have sufficient understanding and knowledge of home based education philosophies and practices, including natural learning methods and un-schooling.
8. Examine ways to improve resources for home-based learners, such as enabling home-schooled children to register with a school that can lend them materials and resources.
9. Extend part-time or flexi-school options to allow home-based educators (and learners) to attend courses that may require special tuition or resources (such as science labs) that are too costly to provide in the home.

The Correspondence School

The Correspondence School has a long and dignified history of offering a mainstream quality education for thousands of New Zealand learners, directly to their homes and through existing schools. It has developed specialist e-learning capacity and provides a critical service, especially to isolated rural communities, who may have also had their local schools closed, and to learners who are alienated from the mainstream system. Recent changes to the Correspondence School have undermined the school's abilities to meet the needs of learners in rural and isolated communities.

The Green Party will:

10. Reinstate parent, teacher, and student representation on the Correspondence School Board to ensure key stakeholders participate in decision-making.
11. Reinstate regional representative staffing postions so that isolated and rural learners can continue to have occasional face to face contact with their teachers.
12. Support and fund its development as a specialist leader in e-learning, which includes face to face teaching, for full time learners.
13. Work with its teachers and support staff to retain and promote a well resourced and supported quality profession.
14. Encourage the delivery of new and innovative correspondence courses.

14. Including All Children

The Green Party will:

1. Develop and fund an Inclusive Education Policy which is based on the premise that not only do all children have a right to attend their local school and to early childhood education, but also have a right to a quality education and to fully participate no matter what their perceived ability.
2. Provide resources to schools and Group Special Education to ensure the government meets its legal obligations to children with special education needs.
3. Ensure that all children who have been identified as having a special learning need, have an IEP (Individual Education Plan) in partnership with the child, their whanau/family, teachers, and special education professionals so that the IEP is meaningful, achievable and acknowledges the holistic nature of the child.
4. Ensure that children with low-incidence impairments have adequate access to specialist services specific to their impairment through Group Special Education.
5. Ensure that blind children, as appropriate, are provided with Braille, low vision, and orientation and mobility instruction, and that deaf children are taught, as appropriate, sign language and other communication skills and techniques.
6. Adequately fund the research and implementation of innovative ways to change whole schools, and provide professional development programmes to teachers, so that New Zealand teaching and schools can fully progress towards inclusion. (e.g. like UNESCO encourage the use of The Index for Inclusion in schools).
7. Support the establishment of a Gifted Education Advisory Committee as recommended by the Working Party on Gifted Education.
8. Support targeted funding for gifted and talented learners and the provision of additional gifted advisers and other professional development initiatives.
9. Research and support further initiatives for home based services, schools, and early childhood services to develop appropriate educational services to learners who are gifted and talented.
10. Research, improve and provide effective ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programmes for all migrant children in state schools, and expand training for teachers in this area.

15. Retaining Sovereignty

The Green Party will:

1. Work towards the removal of education from the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) negotiations, and make education non-negotiable in terms of any international trade treaties, in order to allow the maintenance of national policies and uncompromisingly high standards.
2. Progressively introduce a cap on the number of foreign fee paying learners to no more that 5% of a state school's enrolment.