Data gap in education debate—Goff

Press, 6 July 1988, Page 8

Data gap in education debate—Goff

Wellington reporter

The Associate Minister of Education, Mr Goff, has entered the debate about education standards.

He told the Principals’ Federation annual conference in Wellington that New Zealand could not hide from the biggest failure of its education system.

This was that too many pupils left secondary school disillusioned, alienated and unskilled. At the centre of this debate over standards was a large gap, Mr Goff said, because there was not enough data.

Professor Graeme Nuthall, of the University of Canterbury, had been advocating value-added education assessment for

several years, Mr Goff said.

By monitoring what was happening overseas, appropriate proposals for New Zealand could be considered for New Zealand, he said. Greater attention had to be given to the middle standards of the primary school, for example, because that was where, in general, levels of attainment seemed to be less satisfactory than in the rest of the education system.

The Government had been asking if that perception was right.

The replies had been unsatisfactory, anecdotal, conjecture or “plain hunch,” Mr Goff said.

The Government was seeking assurances from the education system that its programmes for primary school middle standards did stretch, children, improving their skills and competencies. Research done in Britain showed pupils were far more capable by the age of 11 than had been supposed previously.

New Zealand had to find out if that was the case here and then do something about it.