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The most effective education systems?

by Whaleoil on November 30, 2012

The teacher unions will have you believe that New Zealand’s education system is perfect and it is all because of them. We do have a good system but it needs to be better.

The Economist has an article about education systems and they conclude that Finland and South Korea have the most effective education systems.

Finland and South Korea boast the most effective education systems, an assessment of 50 countries has found.

When it comes to improving the performance of education systems, cultural attitudes may matter more than levels of spending. The education environments of Finland and South Korea – the two top performers in a new EIU index – have very different characteristics but share a moral imperative within the national culture that greatly values education.

The two also develop high-quality teachers and place enormous value on the accountability of schools, administrators and teachers.

The teacher unions would hate Finland’s model…because every teacher is required to have a masters level degree…the striving for excellence is anathema to the psyche of New Zealand teachers union bosses.

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  • blokeintakapuna

    If National made a law for the entire education sector to “constantly strive for
    continuous improvements and better outcomes”… that would solve numerous
    problems.

    Failing to attempt, or attempting to block improvement attempts, should be considered
    sedition against a children’s future… with appropriate penalties for perpetrators
    of such a crime… and it is a crime.

    Attempting to shelter / feather bed and protect the union’s patch at the cost of a child’s
    future should be a crime up there with murder, rape, child molesting and sabotage
    of the countries future when prostituting a child’s future for the union’s own political
    agenda’s. Totally shameful… morally corrupt and plainly wrong on a number of
    levels.

  • Goldie

    Absolutely. The problem is that in NZ we have a system that protects useless teachers and fails to properly identify, reward and learn from good teachers. For example, ERO found that for more than a third of teachers teaching reading there was little or no evidence that their teaching was actually linked to the curriculum, and 8% of reading teachers were basically useless. It is similar for other subjects – roughly half of teachers are good – but others struggle, and roughly 1/10 are essentially wasting everyone’s time. That teacher unions insist that there is no problem shows that the unions are part of the problem.

  • Shoreboy57

    Oh God – not Finland

  • Michael Stevenson
  • John Q Public

    The absence of a poor brown underclass in both those countries probably doesn’t hurt either.

  • Teachersrock

    I see Whale is telling lies again. NZEI has never claimed we are the best or that there is nothing to improve. We are however one of the best in the world. No matter what lies the right tell.

    Also NZEI have been trying to get professional pathways put in place for some time, but National has been blocking this. NZEI has been quite keen on teachers having Masters and being seen as the professionals we are.

    So, lets sit back and see what other lies the right will come up with next.

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