by Tim Wilson, Maxim Institute executive director
The news that only about half of our students regularly attended school in the final term of 2022 produced predictable — and reasonable — concern. After all, that number was worse than the 65 percent who had attended during the previous year.
Others took heart. This statistic was an improvement on the previous two terms when 40 percent and 46 percent had regularly come to school.
Covid got blamed (again); a corner had been turned, hopefully. Everyone moved on.
We shouldn’t have. Our regular school attendance rates have been dropping since 2015, long before Covid-19. Compared to places like Canada, they’re a scandal.
But of course, as a nation, with an election coming in a matter of months, we’re more concerned about inflation, housing or crime.
Education? That struggles to get on the radar of things that Kiwis worry about.
Why?
You could reasonably argue the other concerns are more urgent. Latest figures show that food prices recently made the largest jump in 33 years. Fruit and veges were the second largest increases, with the cost of a tomato rising by a staggering 117 percent.
Housing is a national preoccupation. Crime seems to be spiralling out of control.
Translation? “I need to get the supermarket shopping done today without taking out a second mortgage and not get robbed; we’ll find a way to deal with the kids who are dropping out of school tomorrow.”
Yet on reflection, education deeply affects all the “urgent” issues, creating and exacerbating them.
If kids aren’t properly educated (and regularly making it to school would be a start), they’re more likely to end up in low-wage jobs that bear the brunt of economic turmoil such as inflation. Indeed, they’re also more likely to not end up in jobs at all.
With less income, they’re far less likely to own a house. And they’re more likely to turn to crime.
Trends in education are a crystal ball into the headlines of the future.
So let’s talk about the future; it’s not looking bright.
Multivalent, thorny problems will confront us in this century, from the workplace and sociological nuclear explosion that is AI to the predicted demographic winter of discontent. These will require incredible leaders to solve them. Where are these creatures made?
At school. Now . . . . Only half of them aren’t showing up at present.
Every level of society will also need to demonstrate leadership. Elites — according to some — don’t self-sustain. So we should ensure that all socio-economic groups get the same education access to create new elites. That’s not happening now.
This means the next time you’re in the supermarket wondering how you’ll make ends meet; or watching the police whizz by, sirens flashing . . . think about your local school.
Yes, inflation is important, ditto crime and housing, but the answer to — or worsening of — these problems is already happening there.
2 comments
Education is a very important to ensure that our young people are equipped to engage in a functioning democratic society. You seem to have failed to recognise that the perfect storm of insufficient or unhealthy homes, a cost of living crisis (not entirely of our making) and an increasing economic divide between rich and the poor in Aotearoa NZ is taking a toll on our young people.
You probably grew up in a house you got to live in for years on end. Lots of our families now have no idea where they will have to live in a few weeks time.
You probably engaged in an education delivered in ways that mirrored your own values and ethnicity.
You probably, like me, are of the generation that didn't have to pay back a student loan until you were in your mid-30s.
You didn't try to attend school during a global pandemic, while your parents worried themselves sick because they had lost their jobs and you were trying to Zoom into your lessons dealing with patchy internet. You probably didn't need to go out and find a job to help make ends meet.
Did you know that during Covid, schools provided almost every student with a device to learn from home? The only problem was our most disadvantaged children often didn't receive theirs in time and when they did, their internet was not suitable to allow them to participate?
Our kids watch a few of us living a dream life. You know, in a house that is warm, dry and theirs. Some of us don't have to choose between buying decent food, paying for power or paying the rent.
Some children get a free bus to school or get a ride from Mum or Dad. Some have bikes and some can walk. Lots of other young people have none of those things and neither do their parents - and when it rains those children choose to remain away from school because the alternative is being cold and wet all day.
You have absolutely no idea how hard it is out there for many of our children and their parents in real Aotearoa these days.
Do you know why so many families are in real crisis and some kids have disengaged from school?
Most schools offer a Eurocentric model of education. Lots of kids can not see their lives, interests or aspirations reflected in the way they are being taught.
Some politicians many years ago decided to sell off state houses and privatised our assets. It has been a disaster.
Our tax system favours the richest people and penalises the rest of us.
We need to sort out the tax system.
We need to understand that a warm, dry home with enough healthy food and money to pay for power are a right not a privilege.
Only then can our kids and their parents start to think about getting to school and gaining an education rather than trying to survive each day as best they can.
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