New Zealand Listener - October 13, 2018

OCTOBER 13 2018 LISTENER 3

EDITORIAL

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No wagging this one

D

ecisions have consequences. If the Government

thinks it’s keeping a fiscal problem at bay by

refusing to move closer to meeting teachers’ pay

demands, it will have a much worse problem

before this year is out: more classrooms without

teachers.

The teacher shortage

is now so acute, some

principals predict they’ll soon have to park

students in assembly halls for some periods.

Whole subjects are already going untaught

in some schools because of a growing

international shortage of qualified teachers

in key subjects.

This will be catastrophic for the “smart

economy”. More immediately, it will

feed what the Ministry of Education now

acknowledges is an urgent, intractable

problem: truancy. Already, an alarming

4.5% of school children miss so much

school their future options and well-being

are severely restricted.

The teacher shortage will not be

addressed, as the Government hopes, by

funding “extra teacher placements” and

luring ex-teachers back with refresher

courses. The crisis is growing primarily

because, between 2010 and 2016, 40%

fewer new people were attracted to the

profession and existing teachers are leaving,

their pay inadequate for the increasingly

challenging role they play.

Other countries, including Australia and

Britain, also have chronic shortages, and our teacher salaries

are too low to attract them as migrants anyway. We will simply

have to pay to bolster the profession. The risk of flow-on wage

pressures in the economy pales beside that of a poorly educated

future New Zealand.

H

ighlighting teacher desperation was Fraser High School

principal Virginia Crawford’s shock-tactic attempt to dis-

suade her students from wagging school. Her teachers have

to drive around to pick up truants – not their job – and are losing

the battle, with a former staff member claiming up to 100 stu-

dents a day are wagging.

Crawford told students what dismal statistics awaited truants,

and she was largely correct. Lack of educational attainment is a

reliable predictor of low pay or unemployment, which in turn

often contributes to poor nutrition and health, and the tempta-

tion of drugs, booze and/or crime. High illiteracy statistics among

prison inmates are not coincidental. Crawford included coded

references to the vulnerability of truants to gang recruitment and

other sorts of predation. Where she went too far was in linking

truancy to domestic violence, rape and suicide. These are fates

people in any walk of life may face.

Such “tough love” tactics seldom, of course, change behav-

iour, which is why the ministry is urgently

exploring more positive truancy-reduction

measures. But some of the public rebuttal of

Crawford’s message suggested truancy was a

harmless lark.

Let’s get real. New Zealand’s truancy rate

is worsening, according to the OECD – not

a sign of our youngsters’ superior spirits.

Again, decisions have consequences.

To tell youngsters who regularly skip

school that they can catch up later or go

back and get qualifications when they’re

older is so misleading as to be cruel. For

most, school is a one-time chance to max-

imise life’s options and acquire the skills to

be a lifelong learner. The time and financial

hurdles in getting qualifications later are

enormous.

Truancy, confoundingly, has many fac-

tors, as teachers well know. They deal with

it all: from kids with troubled and transient

home lives through to kids who simply

can’t stay awake because of too much sleep-

disruptive social media screen time. Hunger

is, thankfully, no longer the barrier it once

was, as most schools now have “breakfast

clubs” – often run by, yes, teachers.

The complaint that schools fail to engage kids is spurious.

Computer technology, art, kapa haka, drama, fashion, sport

• today’s schools offer immensely student-friendly fare. The
  ministry’s tentative suggestion that “fun” subjects be scheduled
  first thing and after lunch prompted a reminder from principals
  that schools are not entertainment venues, even if such sched-
  ules were possible in colleges. To reading, writing, science and
  maths, it’s important to add self-discipline, concentration and
  the resilience to endure being a bit bored – all necessary skills for
  work and life.
  We expect teachers to do much heavy lifting in our children’s
  life-skills development, and to engage students with physical
  and mental-health challenges, and those with families often
  too distracted by their own overwhelming issues to foster their
  children’s learning.
  But if we don’t reward teachers sufficiently, they too will avoid
  school, and children will be all the poorer for it. l

The teacher shortage

is now so acute, some

principals predict they’ll

have to park students in

assembly halls.