Francesca Rudkin: Parents need to step up when it comes to education

I am so pleased my children are almost through their secondary education. I don’t envy parents of young children heading into the education system now. Education has become so politicised it’s hard for a parent who doesn’t have hands-on experience in education to know whether one party’s evidence-based ideas are good ideas or any better or worse than any other ideas, views and opinions. When the stats show a constant decline over a long period of time, naturally we lean towards change. It’s broken so it needs fixing. How we fix it will always have fans and detractors but it’s better to do something than nothing at all - right? But you shouldn’t sell a new idea with fear, and ideally not with opportunism either - it’s too important for both those things. When the Government announced the launch of their new maths curriculum last weekend, they produced data they claimed was the impetus for them starting the scheme early. The new data showed only 22 percent of year 8 students were at or above the curriculum level, 15 percent were less than one year below the level and a whopping 63 percent were more than one year below it. The Prime Minister said this result was “shocking but probably not surprising” and was emblematic of a “total system failure”. The data came from a Curriculum Insights report from Otago University that looked at how well students would do against the then draft version of the new math's curriculum, which the Labour Government was planning to launch in 2026. The children were measured on a new curriculum they were yet to be taught – a curriculum they had not studied yet. Dr Charles Darr, one of the study authors, told Newsroom this week that 'the results showed a change in curriculum and a new benchmarking process rather than a change in achievement.' You could still argue the results represent how far behind our children are from where we want them to be; but it’s important to put the data into context. The state of our education system is a concern for all of us - whether we’re students, parents, employers or tertiary educators. We do need to turn around declining numeracy and literacy results, so it’s good to see some urgency. But please stop making parents think most kids are doomed. Heaps of kids are leaving school with a good education and heading off to do amazing things - some involve maths, many don’t. So let's focus on making sure the changes are well resourced and can be delivered successfully within the short preparation time. There isn’t as much evidence structured maths works as well as structured literacy and, as we know, kids learn different to each other, so let’s make sure there is support for the students who don’t respond to a structured maths approach. Maybe it’s also time for parents to step up more as well. It feels increasingly that many parents think teachers are alone responsible for the success of their child’s education. In reality, success has always been a team effort by the student, teacher and parents - especially when they are young. Hopefully with testing twice a year, all parents will have a better understanding of where their child is at and have the information they need to successfully support their children’s learning at home. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.