OPINION
Alwyn Poole
Alwyn Poole founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. MH Academy is now an in person private school for Year 11 – 13. There is now a nationwide online provision called Mt Hobson Academy Connected for Years 1 – 13.
The NZ Herald on Sunday contained an interview with former All Black Captain and remarkable businessman David Kirk.
These are some of his comments on education:
“He’s also particularly concerned with education standards.
“We’ve got major problems. I don’t think those major problems are new, but they’ve been exacerbated through the two terms of the government.
“I talk about problems like our continuing decline in educational performance in the OECD. Why should our writing and reading and maths be worse than other members? The Asian countries are bolting ahead as well; they’re not even in the OECD.”
Kids who could once read a particular type of book at the age of 11 were now struggling to read the same book at 15. “That’s shocking.”
Kirk was on the board of one of Sydney’s top private schools, Sydney Grammar School, for seven years.
He’s seen a deterioration in the likes of the New Zealand science curriculum, but “there’s no doubt for me that the most important thing is the quality of the teaching”.
“The issue is not demonising the teachers or demonising the teachers’ union; it’s creating an environment where they feel that there’s an opportunity to excel, and they’ll be rewarded for excelling.”
One of our challenges is we tend to publicly value our schools based on their sporting outcomes. It is a false narrative. Schools can be good at both but a good sports reputation can gloss over concerning academic performance. This year in the Auckland 1A boys 1st XV competition the two finalists are Sacred Heart College (University Entrance for 2021 leavers of 80%) and St Kentigern College (89%). Results for 2022 leavers are out soon. St Peter’s (Epsom) and St Paul’s (Ponsonby) also play in the top competition.
We often think in NZ that the large, traditional boys’ schools are “good schools”. Evidence is that they have a long way to go.
What are the changes that are needed?