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Take note Hekia, do not appoint these people

by Whaleoil on July 17, 2012

ᔥ Scoop.co.nz

100 academics have put their names to a document opposing league tables. Good, that is a convenient list of people who should never be appointed to any position anywhere. They are not ever going to support government policy.

At least they have conveniently listed all their names, that should ensure that even stupid people like Hekia Parata won’t appoint them to jobs.

Over 100 education academics have signed a letter against primary school league tables based on National Standards

We are a group of New Zealand academics teaching and researching in universities. As a group we are very concerned about the proposed publication of ‘league tables’ of primary school performance based on National Standards, whether compiled by media organisations or by Government. We believe that National Standards achievement data and the available school and student level contextualising data are so clearly unsuitable for the purpose of comparing school performance that to purport to do so would be dishonest and irresponsible. We also believe, based on the experience of other countries, that the publication of league tables will be extremely damaging for New Zealand primary education. As academics we will condemn and disregard any published league table of primary school performance and we urge the New Zealand public to do likewise.

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  • le sphincter

    Since when did league tables become government policy- Tolley  was opposed to it.

    Unless its the Minister of Tourism who is making shit up …like he does.

    • Onetrack

      Tolley isn’t the Minister of Education anymore. Maybe she wasnt so bad after all?

  • Scanner

    The intelligentsia, where would we be without them, better off probably. 

    • Chris

      Well, for a start, you wouldn’t have the internet giving you the ability to share your enlightened opinions…

      • D’Jackal

         you mean the internets was developed by a bunch of teachers from new zealand? why didn’t someone tell me?

      • Chris

         Sorry… I thought Scanner had widened the comment to intelligentsia in
        general, rather than just teachers.

        Mea culpa, I’m just a product of
        this run down and battered education system; I never quite mastered the art of reading comprehension.

      • Onetrack

        Being part of the intelligentsia isn’t the same as being intelligent

  • Blokeintakapuna

    “Over 100 education academics have signed a letter against primary school league tables based on National Standards”

    There’s a perfectly valid reason to do the exact opposite of what an academic says right there.

    It doesn’t matter what they “think” about the standards – they don’t make the laws of the country… theyjust need to abide by – setting fine examples for their students in how to follow the laws made by a government – elected by a huge landslide.

    They need to follow the laws of NZ as prescribed to them by Government – or be ousted from the profession for willfully disobeying a lawful and reasonable request / instruction, as well as setting poor examples for the students.

    The academics could always run for Parliament if they don’t like the government and then once they are the government – then they can make the laws. Ohh that’s right – they are trying to get into government – except their horse seems to be suffering Labour pains… it is looking a little Green around the gills…

  • Johno1234

    100 academics? ROTFLMAO!

    That is roughly1% of the NZ university academic FTE head count of around 10,000. 

    There would be far more than 100 lefty activists in that head count, so they can’t even get all of their own to sign this stupid letter.

    Lefty academics FAIL.

    • Phronesis

      Roughly 99% of academics are leftards in my experience.

  • Mr Sackunkrak

    “100 education academics”

    Isn’t that code for 100 lefty agitators? 

  • tarkwin

    If these “academics” don’t agree with their employer and say they won’t co-operate they should come to the carefully thought out conclusion – they’re in the wrong job, time to go.

    • Onetrack

      They could get a job as a politician. That’s never happened before.

  • Chris

    Maybe it’s 100 academics who are keenly interested in improving educational methods and standards. If the document came from 100 teachers, you’d rightly suspect that there might be a conflict of interest, but academics aren’t going to be affected by league tables, so surely you’d trust them to be expressing more honest opinion.

    And I’d listen to their opinion. Academics, or specialists are generally experts in their fields. A lot of the time the truth is counter intuitive, and experts are able to recognise this. How many would put their hands up today saying they would have supported the idea of a spherical world two thousand years ago?

    You don’t always need to ridicule those more qualified than you.

    • grumpy

      They are the useless bastards who ttrained the useless teachers. It’s even more their fault!

  • Pdubyahnz

    100 Academics but not one actual real teacher. Might as well have been plumbers, electricians or even didgy carpet cleaners.

  • fifibelle

    ..so they’ll “condemn AND disregard any published league table…” Not sure how they (let alone the NZ public) will manage to condemn these tables while also disregarding them – but I guess they thought it sounded sufficiently academic and ferocious at the time. Doh!

    • grumpy

      probably still won’t eat their peas…………………………………

    • Sarrs

      These protesty type people seem to love words like ‘condemn’ and ‘disregard’ – with a complete disregard (see what I did there) for how connotations of those words work together. Lets make a list of them:
      Outrage (had to be number one!), condemn, disregard, unfair, undemocratic, struggle…the list could go on and on. 
      Then we could make up cards and play Newsmedia Bingo – the first person to find all the suggested words published by the Labour party and its affiliates wins a date with the supreme champion of outrage – Darien Fenton. For the ladies (or so inclined gentlemen) the other option would be Clayton Cosgrove. I don’t know about the rest of you but those oddly dark eyebrows contrasting against the thinning, lightening hair and the pinched, stiff faced smile really makes me think that the competition amongst WO readers to win Newsmedia Bingo would be immense. 

  • Kimbo

    Meh. You bid 100 education academics wringing their hands and issuing missives over school league tables, and I call your bluff with just one very successful educationalist, and all-round winner in life – Sir John Graham.

    Is it just me, or are the majority from either Massey or Waikato, with a few more malcontents from Vic?

  • Sarah

    Surely they would await the release of the methodology before attacking?

  • http://twitter.com/ChiefsFan73 Rhys Wilson

    hilarious comments on this thread, well done.
     

  • LesleyNZ

    Never heard of any of them before. Guess most of them got their names published in the media for the first time in their lives.How many of them went to school, then to University and then employed by University or other tertiary institution after their Bachelor/Master’s degree? They wouldn’t have a clue about the real world.

  • Teachers rock.

    I love it when people such as those commenting in this thread, who have nothing to do with education, know nothing of how kids learn, know nothing of how the job is done, and that includes Whale, presume to know better than the experts in the area. 

    Only in the area of education do the know nothings presume to override and denounce the voice of those with the most knowledge on the subject. 

    • Kimbo

      “Only in the area of education do the know nothings presume to override
      and denounce the voice of those with the most knowledge on the subject.”

      What? Like parents?! You remember them, don’t you? The ones ultimately responsible for their kids’ education?

      Arrogant tosser

    • Sarrs

      The arrogance of it!
      What about when the budget comes out every year and all of New Zealand thinks their fiscal solutions are better than that of the government?
      Any area of government is criticized by people outside of that specialist area because we have a right, as a democracy, to do so. Bloody hell, teachers are becoming more and more precious every day aren’t they?

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