Mike's Minute: Stop dumbing down our education system

There's a bit of pushback coming from some sectors in the education business towards the reading, writing, and maths tests. 

These are the tests we are failing. Those who are failing mostly come from poor backgrounds. 

I'm not sure equating monetary status and academic success should be a thing. 

But a bunch of principals from the "poorest communities" have got together to lobby the Government to stop the tests because they say it will lead to more kids leaving school with no qualifications. 

After two rounds of these tests more than half failed reading and writing and 75% failed numeracy. 

You can't get university entrance if you don’t get these grades. 

Now, there is no doubt that failure affects attitude and there is equally no doubt that for some the “give it up” scenario must be tempting if the hurdle is too high. 

But then there's also no doubt that allowing kids to leave school having failed is a failure in and of itself. 

Any country that has any level of success globally is not a country that goes soft on education. 

The principals’ answer is the answer that has failed us for years, which is also the Chris Hipkins Covid answer - give them something for nothing. 

An alternative to an exam is the extra 20 credits scenario that is due to expire at the end of 2027. They want that made permanent and instead of 20 credits they want it made into 60 credits. So, like Hipkins and Covid, extra credits for not actually doing anything. Just extra credits for life being a bit crap right now. 

No one gains when we do this. It is excuse making. It is an acceptance that we fail, and are failing, and failure is part of what we do. 

You can either read and write or you can't. You can either add up or you can't. And if you can't, having people pretend you can, won't fix anything. 

Part of why this country is where it is, is because we are apologists in areas like this and instead of being determined to fix it, we set about looking for ways to excuse it. 

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