ROTARY CLUB ADDRESS SEPTEMBER 2004

By Roy Kelly, Principal, Kings College

One of the nice things about having a formal introduction is not having to say to much about yourself. I am reminded of this by the story of George Bush Junior who recently visited a home for the elderly and walked up to one man sitting in a chair and said "Hello do you know who I am?" The old man looked at him, pointed to one of the nurses and said "No but if you ask her she will tell you."

Having spent nearly two years in New Zealand I am pleased to report to you that there are many positive signs about education in this country, albeit acknowledging this is from the viewpoint of an Australian private school educator. In particular, I am delighted to see there are many excellent state schools in New Zealand. This statement may appear odd, given my career history working only in independent school education. However, independent schools need strong state schools to keep them focused, successful and dynamic. When parents choose to pay $13000 for their son's or daughter's education when there is a no-fee school option nearby, means that market forces are truly at work. In Australia, the state schools have been under-resourced and poorly led for a number of years, resulting in little real competition for private schools. Parents have voted with their feet and now over 35% of students attend independent schools. Australian State school teachers must take some of the blame for this situation after too many industrial strikes and placard demonstrations which has seen them forego Saturday sport and adopt a union driven agenda that has won them few friends amongst parents.

However , whilst acknowledging that there is a healthy side to education in this country, I must also state that there are some worrying signs appearing here. There has been a reasonable amount of turmoil in New Zealand education in the last few years, with the introduction of a new qualification system in NCEA and the removal of excellent examinations such as NZEST and Bursary. The introduction of the NCEA has been rushed and poorly planned. The adoption of three new and radical national qualification levels within just three years is without precedent on a world scene and the resultant problems are not surprisingly substantial.

Unfortunately, the educational debate has become one of either/or as the defenders of the faith argue for NCEA or its main alternative the Cambridge International Examinations. At King's College we offer both systems as a dual pathways and, whilst this has meant there has been a huge workload for our teachers, the choice is essential for our clientele. We also have the unique ability to monitor the progress of both systems. I wish the Education Minister would seriously sit down with the critics of the NCEA system and listen to their concerns in an attempt to make the system workable, rather than adopt the incredibly defensive position he so often does by making uninformed criticisms of the CIE. Given a free choice in Year 12, 70% of King's College students have chosen the demanding and rigorous challenges of Cambridge examinations. Similarly, more and more new students, both boys and girls, are coming to us because of their disaffection with the NCEA experience. A standards-based qualification stands or falls on the validity and reliability of the standards set. However, the lack of consistency in the NCEA standards within subjects, between subjects and between years needs immediate action.

The reality is that King's College would have loved to have remained totally within the New Zealand education system and so I believe would have Auckland Grammar, McLeans College, Senior College and many of the other 40 New Zealand schools which are now members of the Cambridge Schools Association. In my twenty months as Headmaster not once has any member of the Ministry of Education even inquired as to why we offer Cambridge examinations or more importantly to ask what we feel should be done to improve the NCEA offering. It is only by listening to your critics that you found out what needs to be done and the dangers of only listening to the converted is obvious. The notion that the situation at Cambridge High School is just one rogue school taking advantage of new rules and regulations is far from the truth. Universities face an enormous challenge of trying to select tertiary bound students from the data that will be sent to them in January. The fact that just two weeks ago the Associate Professor of Education at Otago University went to the effort in the Herald to publicly advertise and state that the NCEA qualification is fatally flawed is a serious indictment on the system, its creators and its defenders.

Another worrying trend in New Zealand education is the ever growing amount of government interference in schooling, with more and more bureaucratic intervention, but paradoxically, the financial support of independent schools is declining. Whether it be in terms of the degree of over-assessment of students currently occurring at all school levels or the degree of over-accountability demanded of teachers, the reality is that teachers and schools need to be trusted more and be required to fill in fewer forms. The teaching profession needs to claim back some of the ground which is ours and fight the ever-increasing bureaucratic demands which, in all honesty, rarely improves the teaching and learning in schools.

Much of the beauty in teaching lies in its perennial battle between the professionalism of the industry and the amateur nature of the art. Here I refer to the traditional definition of amateur, which refers to involvement for pure enjoyment and pleasure. Think about the beauty that existed in rugby when it existed only in its amateur form....and from what I remember the All Blacks were invincible then! We must ensure that bureaucracy and the ever-increasing litigious demands on schools never diminishes the enjoyment, pleasure and idiosyncrasies which characterize great teaching -.I am sure that some of your favourite teachers at school were characters who were rather 'different' from the pack. The sad reality is that these unique teachers are being driven away from the profession.

In addition, the Government has capped funding to independent schools at $40million and refuses to review this unfair policy which, through the growth in the number of independent schools and an increase in school rolls, has had a significant effect on independent schools. At King's College we have had a reduction of over $300,000 in the last two years and this has had an obvious effect on our budget and our fees. It is interesting to compare the differences between the Australian Federal Government's support of Independent schools and that of the current New Zealand Government, which has just 4% of all students in Independent schools, although this figure is steadily growing.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research study of the impact of independent schools completed last year stated quite clearly that increased funding of independent schools would produce cost savings and efficiencies for the Government of over $100 million. However, the fact is that the Government has chosen to ignore the report. Perhaps with an election looming this may change.

In my speech day address last year I highlighted some other concerns that have been noted by Dr John Hattie at the University of Auckland in which he quoted from a recent OECD survey, which included NZ education statistics and revealed some interesting comparisons;

NZ had the greatest number of teachers who have overseas teaching degrees - many from 3rd world nations. Are we happy with this situation?
Of all the OECD nations NZ has the greatest number of teachers with degrees who do not teach. We need to ask why this is the case?
NZ Principals spend the greatest amount of time in administration of all of the OECD nations. This is not where principals want to be.
There are 131 teacher education qualification institutions or sites in NZ - an incredible number given we have a population of just 4 million.

These statistics highlight some serious problems with New Zealand education which need to be addressed with medium term goals and a vision for the future which places education towards the top of Government priorities. A major concern lies with the attraction of teachers to the profession. New Zealand schools are only currently operational because of the influx of overseas teachers to this country. More and more of our teachers are moving overseas or out of the profession, because of their dissatisfaction of what is happening here. In many important subject areas such as Physics and Mathematics the average age of teachers in Australasia is now over 50. The next decade will see a huge retirement of teachers which will leave the country in disarray if sensible decisions about the profession are not made. The solution is not to simply throw more money into salaries, although that is part of the answer. Teachers have never gone into the job for the money it provides, but they have always been attracted to the profession in the past. Young people today do not see the profession as being attractive because of the lack of advancement opportunities, the lack of support for teachers and the increasing litigious nature of our society which, as just one example, makes males fearful of becoming primary school teachers. To ignore these pressures is to do so at our peril, but there is time to address the issues with brave policy making and new paradigms.

The biggest single cost increase in all schools in the last decade has been in the area of information technology. This is not surprising as this form of technology offers some excellent learning opportunities and changes to the teaching and learning dynamic in the classroom. However, I do worry that at times the technology can drive teaching and learning, rather than the other way around. For me it is 'access' to technology rather than ubiquitous technology which is crucial. A teacher should choose when IT is the most relevant learning tool when planning a lesson rather than feel obliged to use it merely because each student has a laptop in class. Appropriate use of technology might well become the catch-cry of the next decade. However, Design Technology courses do offer some unique and important opportunities for students. Here I am referring to robotics, electronics, mechatronics and hard material technologies which are courses essential for students in the 21st century. We need to provide our students with skills and a knowledge base that will reflect the working environment that they will face in the future. Certainly, New Zealand needs a creative, skills based and entrepreneurial workforce now, not in ten years time and schools need to reflect this.

Working with modern teenagers is not without its difficulties, and yet there are so many wonderful opportunities as well. More than ever, students, parents and families need leadership from schools in areas not required in past generations. One important area is in values education. When we were children, values were explicitly taught to us through our parents or the Church we attended. Few students currently attend church and parents are busier than ever before with often both husband and wife working full time. At last year's Board Strategic Planning day we identified the core values that make King's College the unique and important place it is.These are as follows:

The pursuit of learning, the development of moral courage, generosity of spirit, tolerance, honesty, respect, gratitude and spirituality. We strongly believe that these values are the foundation of the true character of King's College, but whereas in past years these could have been assumed, that is no longer the case. These values should identify the College's needs and these needs should then set our goals as a school. This has been an important part of our strategic planning process

On a personal level, the reality gap that exists between 'what I believe in' and 'how I live' is worrying people of all ages, not the least being teenagers. A person who does not know what he or she stands for or what they should stand for will never enjoy true happiness or success. We have a crucial role in affirming these important core values of the school and it is a challenge that we readily meet. The Millenium teenager needs this more than ever. A phrase I heard recently says it all - it described teenagers as being 'homeless in their own homes' and as screenagers being addicted to computer games, movies and the mobile phone. They are all too willing to state their rights without remembering their responsibilities and, not surprisingly, depression and suicide continues to be a major affliction in teenage years.