The least surprising news item in today’s Dominion Post was
the one revealing that more than 100 academics have written to the government
opposing primary school league tables. I hesitate to question the judgment of
the Dom Post’s news editor, but the fact that academics are lobbying to
preserve the right of their friends in the teaching profession to withhold
information from parents about the quality of schools is not news. There is a
common thread to every position taken by the teachers’ unions and their
supporters in academia, whether it’s opposition to national standards, paranoia
about league tables or the recent petulant call for schools’ decile ratings
to be kept secret. It’s all about withholding information from parents and taxpayers
– the people who use and pay for the education system – so that the unions can
continue to exercise control; and it’s presented under the guise of concern for
the wellbeing of pupils when it’s really about protecting teachers and schools from
critical scrutiny.
There was a similar “so what’s new?” quality to an opinion
piece in today’s paper attacking the charter schools experiment. It was co-written
by Trish Grant of the IHC – a once-respected organisation that has been captured
ideologically and consequently lost much of its credibility – and Ian Leckie
of the primary school teachers’ union, the NZEI. The vehemence with which
opponents are pursuing their offensive against charter schools is telling. It’s
only a trial, and on a very modest scale at that, yet the charter schools experiment
is clearly seen as a threat to the status quo. We can expect a constant barrage
of alarmist propaganda against the charter schools initiative as reactionary sector
groups seek to protect their positions, again under the guise of concern for
children. 
1 comment:
You say you "hesitate to question the judgement of the Dom Post's news editor" and as you are an old school (and I use the term in in the most complimentary way) journalist, that is perhaps understandable. However, there is an clear trend to your recent blogs of exposing the most unalloyed bias by the New Zealand media. How much more of your own evidence will it take for you to accept that the Dom Post editorial staff are blatantly pushing a left-wing political agenda, like many of the other media outlets in this country? You have in the past implied that such a view is a tad paranoid, but you keep on loading on the evidence. Perhaps it is time you accepted the obvious.
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