Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Claire Amos: Albany Senior High School Principal on the new subjects to be added to schools

Transcript

Claire Amos: Albany Senior High School Principal on the new subjects to be added to schools · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well Erica Stanford has released the subject's list. This is
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the new subjects which will be included in the replacement
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of NCEEA. I've got some new ones here for you.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Primary Industries will be a science subject you can take
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: in year thirteen. Electronics and Mechatronics is one you can
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: take in year twelve. That's under technology. Also automotive engineering,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Building and Construction, infrastructure engineering, mechanical engineering. You can take music, technology,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Sociology is new Civics, Politics, philosophy, Pacific studies or new subjects.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Claire Amos is the Albany Senior High School principal with
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: me this morning, Clear, Good morning, MORENNA. Good list.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It's an interesting list. I have mixed feelings about the list.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: The subject titles sound great, that there's a whole lot
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of information about what sits behind them that I have questions.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Around, which I guess is I mean, would you expect
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to have all the detail when they're just releasing the list.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm interested that we've even got a list which
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: has had zero consultation, so this has come as a
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: bit of a bolt out of the blue. I recognize
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: it's an extension of the proposal to replace in CEA
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and to provide some suggestions. You know, that's still supposedly
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: up for consultation and hasn't shouldn't be a facer complete
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: at this stage. So I think it's interesting that we've
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: been given a whole new senior subjects list without any
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: consultation at this stage, and we've got a whole lot
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: of new subjects, and we've got these VET subjects, which
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I think are a really interesting thing to explore further
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: because they may actually present some issues for our sector.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: What VET subjects are you talking about?
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: So vocational education and training subjects. There's a whole lot
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: of new ones, some of them that you mentioned primary
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: industries and etc. Outdoor education is now a vocational subject.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: What we know about vocational subjects is they're not going
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: to be funded for schools to necessarily resource and teach.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: What they will do is they'll have an industry skills
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: board who will be developing the resources and potentially even
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: delivering the teaching and learning. And I've got a real
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: concern that this is a bit of a creep away
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: towards privatization of parts of our education sector, but also
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: that it takes it out of the context of school
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: some of the most powerful vocational teaching and learning at
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: the moment happens in the context of our schools, where
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: they're designing it to meet the needs of their very
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: distinct communities, such as rural communities.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Clear do you accept that NCAA has been failing students
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and has been failing parents? And if you accept that,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: then why does schools who are the ones that have
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: had the flexibility to run the system now need to
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: say on all in sundry with the replacement.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I actually don't accept that NCAA is a failure. I think,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: like every system, it has some points of weakness that
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: we need to address. But I actually believe we would
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: be far better off to improve the system that we have.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I kept thinking about the incredible amount of reasons, seeing
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the amount of dollars it's going to create to not
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: only rewrite the curriculum for every single subject in that list,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: because if we get the proposed changes to this new
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Zealand Certificate of Education, that's going to require brand new
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: curriculum for every single subject, brand new assessment frameworks for
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: every single subject. That's huge resourcing. I think we need
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to actually pause for a moment, step back and look
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: at what the real issue is. If we want to
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: raise literacy and numeracy and make sure that we're actually
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: raising the outcomes of all of our learners.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Where how can you you accept that we need to
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: do all those things which is clearly means it hasn't
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: been done, you know.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: No, it needs means we need to make improvements. One
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: of our most esteemed professors, Vivian Robinson, says, we need
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: to reduce change to increase improvement. And I worry that
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: if you're not an educator, simply rewriting the whole system
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: looks like a very neat and tidy solution when we
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: would be far better off investing in what we have
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: and improving it and advancing it.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not claient.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: It doesn't need to be improvements made, but let's work
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: with what we've got.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I have delivered the clear amails at Albany Senior High
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: School principle. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: listen live to news Talks it be from five am weekdays,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio