'We've already moved public opinion' – NZEI organiser

UNITYblog spoke with Peter Hughes (left in photo above), an NZEI field officer (union organiser) who travelled on the Bus Tour, about the union’s campaign against national standards.

How did the tour go?

“The Bus Tour kicked off on the first day of term. Hundreds of schools have been visited. We’ve aimed to do four or five a day. The initial meetings spurred demand for a whole lot more.

“We found that those who were concerned to start with have become very concerned, and are trying to find strategies for engaging with communities. It’s already moved public opinion.”

What do you think about teachers boycotting national standards, an idea mentioned by NZEI president Frances Nelson at the rally at parliament on March 31?

“Technically, a boycott is industrial action, which is illegal under the Employment Relations Act. But it won’t be illegal after July 1, when our collective agreement expires. Some teachers want to link our pay claim to the campaign against national standards. There’s a concern that national standards will lead to ‘performance pay’, where teachers are paid more or less according to their school’s test results.”

The government has threatened to sack elected school boards and replace them with commissioners if they refuse to implement national standards. Can they do it?

“It’s a numbers game. If even 200 schools refuse to do it, the government won’t be able to carry out its threats. There won’t be enough commissioners! But it must be done collectively. Individual boards and principals can be picked off.”

What’s the potential for this campaign to feed into more general grassroots resistance to the National government?

“I was in the union office this morning. The members who came in to support the campaign were talking about the government’s plans to mine the National Parks. The issues are crossing over.

“Right now, the public petition calling for a trial of national standards before they’re introduced is extremely important. We’ve got over 21,000 signatures now. We need tens of thousands more.”

(For more on the fight against the government's national standards, click here)

‘National Standards’ in primary schools – first big defeat for the government?

by Grant Brookes

The growing campaign against “national standards" hit parliament on March 31, when around 200 teachers handed over signed Appeals to the government from nearly half the school communities in New Zealand. The Appeals call on the government not to implement the standards without trialling them first.

It was the culmination of the nine week Bus Tour organised by the NZEI primary teachers union. The Tour had visited schools and held hundreds of community meetings from Kaitaia to Bluff.

Labour and Green Party MPs lined up on parliament steps to greet the noisy teachers. Some Labour MPs had even spent time on the campaign bus to show their support. A wide array of trade unionists – from the Nurses Organisation to the Maritime Union, from the Finsec bank workers union to the National Distribution Union – joined the teachers' rally.

The protest reflected the scale and breadth of the movement that’s building around this issue. A UMR poll in February found that two thirds of people, and 71 percent of those with primary school age children, support NZEI’s call.

Their campaign has the potential to deliver the union movement’s first comprehensive defeat of the government and tip the balance back in favour of all grassroots people.

Yet just a week earlier, Labour education spokesperson Trevor Mallard told a Wellington campaign meeting, “I think in the end, we’ll end up with something that looks like some kind of compromise.

“NZEI is pushing hard for a trial... But public reporting is almost inevitable now.”

Put simply, "national standards" are like exams for primary school kids – in reading, writing and 'rithmetic – with the results published in the media.

The government touts them as the solution for low educational achievement by a minority of school children, mainly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

But as NZEI has explained very well, these are the kids who'll be worst off under a national standards regime. "Not all children come to school equal", says the union. A child may have strengths in many areas, but not in literacy and numeracy – which are the only subjects to be tested. Labelling them as failures because they can't do these tests will damage their motivation to learn.

The exam results will also be used – officially or unofficially – to rank schools. Richer, more mobile families will gravitate even more to the "elite" schools. The rest of us will be left with struggling, underfunded schools.

The pressure on teachers to get good test results will inevitably force some to neglect a child's broader needs for learning and development. And the pressure will be passed on to the kids, too. It will no longer be OK for them to progress at their own rate.

Not surprisingly, with so much riding on the results, similar schemes overseas have seen widespread cheating and are now being abandoned.

The government has been unable to counter these arguments from the union. But national standards aren't really about helping poor achievers, anyway. The real reason for introducing national standards is to control teachers.

Teachers are a difficult group for the government to manage. Not only are they highly unionised, well educated professionals, who work with a degree of autonomy in the classroom, their immediate bosses (principals) are former classroom teachers and union members, too.

Above the principals are the boards of trustees. Managers and businesspeople tend to dominate on school boards. Even so, board members are elected from the school community, and in lower and mid-decile schools the boards, too, have ties to the working class.

The government wants tighter control over teachers in order to dictate what is taught to the next generation of workers. It's no coincidence that national standards are focusing only on literacy and numeracy, and not on skills like critical thinking or developing self-esteem and a sense of self-worth (part of the current health curriculum). National standards are about serving the interests of employers by creating a productive, obedient workforce.

The most insidious aspect of all is the effect that "national standards" will have on the ethos of cooperation and on working class values like solidarity which are nurtured in many primary schools.

The tests will pit children against their peers from a very young age, in competition for the good grades. Each school will likewise be in competition with all other schools for places higher up the public league table.

NZEI president Frances Nelson told the rally at parliament, "Huge concern exists over whether this is politically driven, rather than being a policy in the best interests of children and their learning."

National standards, ultimately, are about corroding cooperation and nurturing the anti-human, competitive values underpinning capitalism.

But as Frances Nelson said, "As professionals, we have both a right and an obligation to challenge an educational policy that has no evidence that it will work".

“We did meet with minister Anne Tolley just a little while ago. We gave her a list of all of the schools that have signed up to trial the standards.

A cheer went up when she added, “We also indicated there are a number of schools who weren’t interested in trialling the standards at all, because they intend to boycott.”

With this level of industrial strength and community support, there's no need to heed Trevor Mallard's suggestion to settle for "some kind of compromise" that leaves National's agenda largely intact.

Teachers have comprehensively beaten the National government before, through a community-backed campaign of industrial action. In 1991, National introduced a policy of "bulk funding" for schools. It aimed to divide and weaken teachers by breaking up their national collective agreement, and to make schools more reliant on fundraising and less on government money.

For the next seven years, primary and secondary teachers took action, including nationwide strikes and dozens of wildcat strikes. Foreshadowing today's talk of boycotts, both primary and secondary teachers boycotted the introduction of the government's new curriculum. Many of these actions were in defiance of National's anti-union laws.

When National was finally voted out, eight years later, there were still only 17 percent of schools signed up to bulk funding. The policy was dropped. Teachers held onto their national collective - the only major group to do so. This later aided other unionists to regain national agreements for themselves.

Building up to a huge campaign of boycotts against national standards is what's needed now. Primary teachers are due to enter bargaining for their collective employment agreement soon, making industrial action over both pay and national standards a possibility.

But to have the confidence to win, teachers will need strong public support. The next phase of the campaign will focus on the public petition, 21,000 signatures and growing. Download it here and get collecting!

Education for all: Stop night class cuts

Schools and their communities are rallying to defend community education classes from Government funding cuts. In a clear sign of who they expect to pay the price of the recession, National has cut funding to night classes, by $13 million, while giving private schools a $30 million handout. As one post on the Stop Night Class Cuts Facebook page put it, it’s like “a reverse Robin Hood philosophy i.e. take from the poor to give to the rich!” It’s not as if National MPs are unaware of the value of these classes. An entry on the PPTA blog The Pigeonhole reveals that Finance minister Bill English “now brutally taking an axe to the night classes that, four years ago, he claimed gave a life-line to his own mother.” The post goes on to describe how in 2006 English criticised the then Labour government, claiming they were “destroying” night classes with “ridiculous bureaucracy”:

School night classes have been a cornerstone of community education for decades, providing opportunities for learning and companionship for thousands of people. The system has been cheap and flexible. The demise of night classes is bad for schools, for communities and for thousands of people who use them to learn something new.

The cuts have provoked a massive outcry from schools, community education groups and many of the hundreds of thousands of people who have enjoyed and benefited from night classes over the years. CLASS (Community Learning Association through Schools) have produced 125,000 postcards to be sent to National MPs and set up a campaign website. Many schools have included details of the cuts and the campaigns in the newsletters listing courses for the upcoming terms three and four (which may well be the last). The Labour Party has taken up the issue, with some Labour MPs organising public meetings. The Government says it won’t change its mind. In what is becoming a pattern for National ministers, Education Minister Anne Tolley wants us to believe her only concern is for the poor and underprivileged, while those who want to save community education are a misinformed, unreasonable elite, determined to pursue their personal interests at the expense of unskilled youth. I’m faced with demand to fund extra places for young people wanting skills training. Is it reasonable to deny them funding in favour of personal interest and hobby courses? Further reading The June edition of PPTA News gives an summery of the cuts ‘Will the sun go down on evening classes?’ The Herald article ‘Lights out at night school’ is a comprehensive report. Campaign links CLASS (Community Learning Association through Schools) have a campaign website: http://www.stopnightclasscuts.org.nz/ And a Fadebook group. To view this log in to Facebook and search for “Stop Night Class Cuts”. Stop nightclass cuts public meetings Glenfield, Auckland’s North Shore Stop nightclass cuts. Organised by community education co-ordinator Liz Godfrey. Join learners and tutors to discuss the proposed funding cuts - guest speaker, Darien Fenton MP. If you care about the future of lifelong learning in NZ please come and show your support. Email: lizg@northcote.school.nz Date: Monday, July 20 Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Kaipatiki Theatre, Glenfield College Ohariu, Wellington & Lower Hutt ‘Don't let a part of your community disappear overnight’ says meeting organizer, Labour MP Charles Chauvel. Email: ace@charleschauvel.com Date: Thursday, July 30 Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Newlands Community Centre, Batchelor Road Papanui, Christchurch Organised by Papanui High principal Denis Pyatt, on behalf of Christchurch schools. Date: Monday July 27 Time: 7:30pm Location: Papanui High School Hall

Bolivarian University of Venezuela: Five Years of Alternative Education and Social Transformation

from Bolivarian News Agency (ABN), Caracas

2 August 2008

This institution has a student registration of 189,000 students in its main branches and the so-called municipal villages (satellite classrooms); 2,900 technicians have graduated between 2006 and 2007. At the end of the first semester of 2008, a further 1,900 students graduated.

The Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV, Spanish acronym) has reached its fifth anniversary working for an alternative paradigm aimed at building new forms of social interaction.

Continue

"Key's bribe to students too little, too late", says RAM

RAM - Residents Action Movement Media release 27 May 2008 John Key's suggestion that doctors receive a free education if they stay in New Zealand for three or four years after graduation does not tackle the issues facing tertiary students, says Oliver Woods, Auckland Central candidate for RAM - Residents Action Movement. "Key's election bribe to students is too little, too late," said Oliver Woods. "Most students, not just those in medical schools, are facing big debts and fee rises every year. They’re frustrated by the refusal of both National and Labour to end user pays tertiary education." "Standing in this year's election, RAM will be proposing a full and universal bond system whereby all students will receive a free tertiary education if they stay in New Zealand for five years following graduation," said Oliver Woods. "Additionally, the age levels of student allowances must be lowered to 18 years. Students need a helping hand from government like they received for most of the 20th century, not a smack in the face." "Such a system would reward young Kiwis for staying in New Zealand and would help stop the brain drain overseas. Tertiary education in New Zealand should be a right, not a privilege as it is at present." "Student organisations have spent two decades lobbying hard for a rethink of the lunacy of our failed market-driven system. Yet the two big parties have ignored them." "As a student myself, I know that students everywhere want positive policy changes that ease the costs of fees, accommodation and other necessities. So I am standing for RAM in Auckland Central against Labour Party high-flyer Judith Tizard and her more-market National rival. Students are sick of being invisible people ignored by the politicians unless they feel the need to throw a few election crumbs," said Oliver Woods. Oliver Woods is standing as an Auckland Central candidate for RAM, as the Residents Action Movement is popularly known. A post-graduate student, he is also involved in a small IT startup company. RAM, a political movement in the process of registration with the Electoral Commission, was formed into a national-level party just three months ago. Already the new party has 2,500 members, giving it a bigger membership than other parties currently represented in parliament (United Future, the Progressives and ACT). RAM's GST-off-food petition has attracted 12,000 signatures over the past few weeks. In the 2008 general election, RAM will be contesting electorate seats around the country (including upwards of a dozen in Greater Auckland), as well as the party list vote. Its aim is to provide a strong broad left voice. For more information, contact: Oliver Woods 021 072 4647 oliver.woods@gmail.com

Bolivarian University of Venezuela: Five Years of Alternative Education and Social Transformation

from Bolivarian News Agency (ABN), Caracas 2 August 2008 This institution has a student registration of 189,000 students in its main branches and the so-called municipal villages (satellite classrooms); 2,900 technicians have graduated between 2006 and 2007. At the end of the first semester of 2008, a further 1,900 students graduated. The Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV, Spanish acronym) has reached its fifth anniversary working for an alternative paradigm aimed at building new forms of social interaction. “We are a university playing a role in the current situation of society, where there are two development models in conflict: the neoliberal globalizing model and the socialist model. Our proposal during these first five years has been to build much more human social, socialist, relations - with more solidarity,” said the Vice-president of the UBV Luis Damiáni. Damiáni assures that the struggle between models is expressed in society and in the field of higher education; that’s the reason why he describes the work of this university as “strategic.” According to the UBV vice-president, “the university-society articulation has sought - among other things - the graduation of professionals that could individually develop and respect collective values; citizens that could contribute to the construction of collectivist social relations with less selfishness and individualism as they try to solve the big problems of the nation.” Damiani, who prefers to see this anniversary as a starting point, stresses that the UBV’s strategic objective is to work for breaking the model of exclusion that has marked the Venezuelan higher education sector. “We are heading towards a socialist university of the people. That’s the reason why we have insisted on activities directly related to participation, which is inherent in any socialist system,” explained Damiani. Five years, five achievements On the occasion of the commemoration of the UBV’s fifth anniversary, Yadira Cordoba, former minister of Science and Technology and president of this university, summarizes the advancements of this institution. First is the creation of a “university loyal to the ideals of the Bolivarian Revolution, conceived from a theoretical, methodological perspective shaping a new way of thinking about what a university should be and how education process should be tackled from a different perspective.” Second is the UBV’s fast expansion in the country. “Thanks to the municipalisation and Mission Sucre (a program providing free and ongoing higher college and graduate level education to adult Venezuelans), the UBV has branches in 276 municipalities of Venezuela, which is closely tied to the concept of inclusion. It does not only leave room for those people who were rejected by the Venezuelan university system, but it also reaches places Universities had not reached. University gets much closer to the people.” The former minister of Science and Technology said that some regions with low population density or not representing a political priority were ruled out by the higher education institutions, but they had become the target of the UBV. Third is the teaching process, which has been conceived and implemented to train and develop professionals with a new profile. “A professional committed to the transformation of society in the fields they have selected, with principles aiming at the people’s needs, the country’s strategic objectives and the Constitution. A professional educated with a high sense of solidarity and defense of the national sovereignty,” she explains. Fourth are the UBV relations with the communities through Community Councils. “This project allows our students to get together as a collective in different communities,” she said. Córdoba stressed that the constant academic preparation of the UBV’s teachers is the fifth achievement. She pointed out that the UBV has 2,600 teachers in its payroll, 1,600 out of whom are taking postgraduate courses. Growing Human Resources The higher education scenario when President Hugo Chávez took office was very different from the current situation. The figures provided by Damiani show an exponential growth from 1999 to the current date. “When President Chávez took office we found that 497,000 high school graduates did not have the opportunity to join higher education, a typical sign of social exclusion because the middle and upper class were the only ones that could access universities.” By 2006, the UBV graduated 1,948 higher technicians, 751 journalists, 623 in environmental management, and 574 in social management. In 2007, the number of graduates was 968 and higher technicians (175 journalists, 495 in environmental management and 298 in social management). In 2008, 159 people graduated in agro-ecology, 96 political and government studies, and 254 in computer science. Currently the UBV has a student registration of 189,674 students in its main branches and the so-called municipal villages (satellite classrooms). Conscious commitment Within the debate on the university autonomy, which is widely discussed by many higher education institutions, the Bolivarian University of Venezuela also assumes a critical position, raises its voice regarding its five years of experience and makes clear the way it will continue working. The UBV “does not consider itself as an isolated institution; like many other universities want to do. The UBV is really aware of its relation with society; with the sectors we committed with; they are the most vulnerable,” Damiani said. “Other universities accuse the UBV of being ideological; as if they work in connection with objectivity, science and autonomy, apart from their object of study and analysis,” Damiani added. He explains it is just there where some other fronts try to impose their ideology and mental formation process. “We just want interaction to be supportive and equal. It must move towards the development of the common interest. Our commitment is with people and that’s obvious. We will check our programs since we know the political fight is first held on the field of theory,” vice-rector pointed out. In this sense, UBV Rector Córdoba urges people to keep their commitment to their country: “We must be able to train professionals with the profile the revolution needs. An integral professional capable of understanding the challenges and committing with the people; a transformer who stands out no matter the role he/she has to play.” Nevertheless, Córdoba considers the top challenge is to make the UBV become an example to be followed by other Venezuelan universities. “The UBV must be a house that engenders knowledge linked to our reality; useful for transformation. In the next five years, we’ll have a university that graduates people with a high political commitment; a university with a high-level group of teachers; a university that will support communities and offer consultancy for their projects, dreams and collective wishes,” Córdoba stated.