Heather Roy’s voluntary student association membership bill has been reported back from the Education and Science Select Committee. It recommends, with a few minor changes, that the bill proceed. This is bad.
In the Select Committee we heard from individual students whose ability to stay at university or polytechnic was the result of advocacy and representation from student associations. Like the guy in Hamilton whose flat burned down and was about to be left with nothing because his insurance company gave him the run around, until the student association stepped in.
We also heard from tertiary institutions who do not support the Bill. They appreciate the representation role played by student associations, and they know that they can not provide services in a cost effective way that associations with large amounts of voluntary labour can.
We heard from Australia how their version of voluntary membership destroyed the vast majority of the services and programmes that student associations ran.
The bizarre thing about this Bill is it actually takes away a choice for students. The current law, which National put in place, allows students to decide by referenda if they will have a voluntary or universal association. That is gone.
One curious thing, is Heather Roy’s media statement on this Bill focuses on calling for National to support her bill. She says
“I call on the National Party – indeed, all Parties of this House – to support my Bill and the right to freedom of association for students throughout New Zealand,” Mrs Roy said.
Why ever would she be worried about National’s support? Didn’t they just vote it through the Select Committee? How curious.
Posted in Students and Education. |
I had a great time at lunchtime participating in a giant scrabble game in Cuba Mall in Wellington. Lots of members of the public joined in, though I am not sure that all the words ” in the scrabble dictionary” are words!
It was definitely a fun way to highlight World Literacy Day, and in particular the importance of funding literacy training and support in New Zealand. According to Literacy Aotearoa 40% of New Zealanders have difficulty with the reading and writing in their jobs. We must address this and ensure that literacy issues are picked up as early as possible and addressed in our school system.
Once again at the event today people raised with me their concerns over the cuts to adult and community education. I have come to the view that this will be one of the most expensive $13 million cuts the government will ever make. Not only because of the impact it has on those who can not access courses, but also the anger that it has created.
There is also emerging concern over cuts to other literacy programmes. Despite the rhetoric from the government, literacy programmes have been cancelled all around New Zealand. Particularly hard hit are workplace literacy programmes.
Steven Joyce has said that literacy and numeracy programmes are “a priority”, but also that there will no be additional funding for them. Eventually this ‘all care, no responsibility’ approach has to stop, and real investment needs to happen.
Posted in Literacy and Education. |
The news that secondary teachers are set to strike within the next two weeks sets up an interesting situation. The Ministry of Education do the negotiating on behalf of the government with teachers. My sources tell me that industrial action is looming in the Ministry of Education itself, with pay talks stalled and the mood souring.
Will Anne Tolley soon have on her hands not only the teachers on strike, but her Ministry staff out as well? And will the negotiators for the Ministry of Education be able to come back to the table if there is movement from the teachers, or will they be on strike as well?
Posted in PPTA and Education. |
I had just become Labour’s Tertiary Education Spokesperson when the Budget estimates for Vote Tertiary Education were before the select committee in June. This is the one occasion when committees get to question Ministers. I have a healthy respect for Steven Joyce’s political nous, but I was keen to find out what lay behind that in terms of policy. What I quickly discovered was that when it came to tertiary education his was the accountant’s view- he knew the cost of everything, and the value of nothing.
Our exchange in the select committee was marked by two things. The first was his clear response to the emerging pressure on tertiary enrolments. He said it was a temporary problem and proudly boasted of the limits to eligibility to student loans that would “dampen demand”. That phrase has stuck with me as being one of the most disturbing things I have heard from a government Minister. In a time of high unemployment for the foreseeable future and a desperate need to find new ways to grow the economy, the key strategy of the Tertiary Education Minister was to work on ways of keeping people out of tertiary education. It just seemed wrong.
The second thing I saw was Steven Joyce get angry. I had never seen that. He had spent a year and a half smiling his way through his introduction to being a Minister. But he got angry with me when I started pushing him on the need to lift the cap on enrolments. We have seen quite a bit of “shouty Steven” as opposed to “smiley Steven” lately in Parliament. He is handling a heavy workload, and with problems in terms of the flip flop on the drink-driving limit, the enrolment limits at universities and the roll out of broadband it is no wonder he is less cherry than he has been.
But in the end Mr Joyce’s mood is irrelevant to the fact that we have people in New Zealand who want to be in tertiary education, who will not be this year and more next year. We are not going to catch up with Australia or anyone else for that matter if we do not harness the potential of all New Zealanders. To me the answer here is for a more active role for the Minister to ensure that potential students are catered for. It might be that not every single person who wants to go to a University should automatically go there. It might be that some time in a Polytechnic or Wananga would be a better place, or that a PTE might provide a good bridging course. Whatever, it requires an active Minister to lead the process.
To satisfy yourself that your job is done as a Minister if the bill for student loans is cut a little is not good enough. Mr Joyce should can and should be playing an active role in connecting students to study and people to opportunities. It is vital to our whole country.
Posted in Students and Education. |
This morning’s Dom Post has an interesting piece previewing the Trans-Tasman ranking of government agencies.
I am somewhat sceptical of these kinds of rankings. An awful lot depends on who the panelists were who picked them. But it is interesting nonetheless.
Some of it certainly correlates with my experiences. I would lay a fair bet that Peter Hughes from MSD may well be awarded their best Chief Executive. He is a class act, who is responsive and innovative. Another agency that I think is in fact underrated is DOC. I think Al Morrison has had them running pretty well lately.
On the downside I think Education’s position reflects a Ministry really struggling with a Minister who confounds them at every turn. When I was in the PMs office we used to award a Ministry each week who put forward the most impenetrable language in a Cabinet paper. Education, ironically, often took out the award. But that was before Karen Sewell took over, and I think she has been good.
Health is definitely facing challenging times. The placement of the National Health Board inside the Ministry with Tony Ryall’s hand-p[icked guy Murray Horn running it is definitely causing confusion and unclear lines of accountability. Whoever takes over from Stephen McKernan has to accept an interfering Minister and a “fox in the hen-house.”
In any case good on TransTasman for being interested in how Ministries and Departments are being run. Its important for all of the public services we use every day.
Posted in GOvernment Departments, Health and Education. |
