Kia ora e te whānau

Have you noticed that organisations within a system tend to suffer from inbuilt inertia? The status quo is maintained because organisations that exist to influence the system ultimately end up becoming the system. Real change is hard to achieve because solving problems threatens the very existence of the organisation tasked to address those problems.

No organisation wants to cannibalise itself!

Imagine if the National Suicide Prevention Office was disbanded because the rate of suicide plummeted; imagine if the Bullying Prevention Advisory Group (BPAG) was cancelled because bullying disappeared from our schools; imagine we no longer needed an Office of the Children’s Commissioner because the country had achieved social, educational and economic equity and every health and wellbeing decision was truly child-centred; or imagine if Kāhui Ako were unnecessary because we clustered naturally out of a professional enthusiasm to network together.  

It takes significant investment to maintain system organisations when funds would be better targeted at supporting solutions that make an immediate and tangible impact on the wellbeing of young people and the work of teachers. 

It is common to see government and organisations investing in more working parties, and more combined cross-sector initiatives and more expert advice.

What isn’t so common is a commitment to action.

Our youth desperately need us to ‘step up’.

Over the past five months, NZPF has raised issues and suggested ‘shovel ready’ initiatives to address the wellbeing of young people, higher rates of success in school and quality teaching and learning. They include:

1. Student counsellors in schools south of Year 9
2. Funding expansion of Te Tupu- Managed Moves, a programme that seeks to protect young people from suspension and exclusion
3. Alternative provision for violent students who are having a significant impact on the safety of teachers and students in our schools
4. Streamlined pathways for young people to access residential schooling
5. The reorientation of preservice teacher education to include a much greater focus on practice-based training
6. The revitalisation of the Arts through professional learning and arts advisory services
7. A complete refocus for ERO away from a punitive accountability approach, to a powerful improvement model
8. The development of the ESA in genuine partnership with principals

We know that the COVID-19 crisis has diluted the energy and focus across these domains and so we wait. But we cannot wait for long while the violence in class and suicide rates continue to climb, young people are excluded from school for lack of alternatives, enrolment in residential schools remains impossible to navigate, bullying and mental health issues grow exponentially, our teachers can’t teach the Arts and university ITE programmes are not practice-based.

Action is needed sooner not later.

Of course, we accept that the funding pot is finite. While we argue that funding for our ‘shovel ready’ initiatives cannot wait, our responsibility as practice-based professionals is to constantly assess the resources we are given and advise government as to their value. Resources, strategies, programmes, and approaches that have low value should be downsized in favour of those that have the greatest impact on the learning and welfare of young people.

Do we judge, for example, the millions spent on Kāhui Ako to have given more value for money than if the money had been spent on learning support for young people with significant and serious challenges with behaviour, learning and often both?

Our responsibility is to have the brave discussions that will help government understand what we need to build positive futures for young people. Nothing should be sacred in such a discussion - everything is on the table. That is how a thinking profession works.

So, let’s talk. Invite me to your local association or principal group so that I can hear your ideas or email me your thoughts.

Exercise your voice. Change is possible. Government and the Ministry of Education need your expert advice.

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz