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EDUCATION - Last month it was revealed that 200,000 New Zealanders do not read well enough to be able to follow instructions on a bottle of pills we bring home from the pharmacy. This is not rocket science. It's "take two tablets, three times a day after meals" kind of stuff.
Then, a short time later, presumably to distract us from this shocking news, the Minister of Education, Trevor Mallard, informs us that sex education in schools will become compulsory. The very same teachers that can't teach our kids to read or write are now going to teach them about sex. It is not surprising then that parents are loosing faith in our education system.[Sic]
But dare mention school reform or school choice and the full wrath of the unionized teaching profession descends upon you.
Simple reforms that would provide parents with a choice as to where children are taught and who teaches them.
In what other area do adults not exercise their own free choice? Adults choose their cars, their houses, their banks, what they wear and where they make their purchases.
Surprisingly, in one of the most important areas, education, parents are told you have no choice.
Parents certainly don't want their children to be lab rats in the experimentation of the teaching elite. But it does happen.
Take one of the sillier experiments in teaching over recent years, whole language reading. This system turned the teaching of reading on its ear and created a generation of illiterate New Zealanders.
A report in Forbes magazine described the whole language reading method as "one of the goofiest, most destructive educational fads of recent times." It went on, "It's astonishing that what is essentially a system of guessing words has become so widespread, underscoring how frivolous many educational bureaucrats have become".
New Zealand, unfortunately, is regarded as a world leader in the whole language teaching method. Not surprisingly, New Zealand is now regarded as a world leader in remedial reading.
The problem isn't the kids, or their parents or even the teachers but the system: a monopoly, run by politicians, educational bureaucrats and teacher's unions.
Monopolies don't meet the customer's needs and this is as true in education as in any other field.
Years ago, while traveling on Air New Zealand internationally, we felt a sense of pride with the high quality service provided by the airline.
However, traveling domestically was a different story, Air NZ service was shoddy and prices were high. Why? Internationally Air NZ had to compete with overseas airlines but domestically it was protected from competition by government regulation.
If we truly want a better future for our children and the opportunity to be part of the new economy we have to get education right.
It's unfortunate that the politicians who should be showing leadership in education don't because the teacher's unions are powerful and well-organised and even modest reforms such as bulk funding attracted their wrath. Make no mistake, teacher's unions have their own interests at heart not your child's.
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