Preparation for changes

Press, 27 September 1988, Page 14

Preparation for changes

By

GLEN PERKINSON,

in Wellington

The Hawke report’s recommendations are geared toward giving New Zealanders a wider education and preparing them for the changing society in the twentieth century.

Issues like the need for consumers and producers to be more “technologically literate” and for preparation for “longer years in retirement and perhaps long-term unemployment” are covered. “Education needs to be preparation for more than working life,” Professor Hawke said. “Increasing sensitivity to variations in ethnic and gender values and increased importance of general education for coping with change” are changes he saw within New Zealand’s education system. “We should not be satisfied with anything other than excellence from our

education system,” he said.

Decentralisation of education would see decisions made where “the resources and knowledge are.”

He said the funding of 20 per cent of the cost of post-compulsory education by the student was “fair and pragmatic.” It was impossible for the Government to adequately fund the increase in places available in tertiary education institutes without some private funding. Those that benefited from the ability to earn greater incomes through education should contribute to the cost.

The loan system advocated by his report has drawn on the W.R.A.N. principle used in Australia. The Associate Minister of Education, Mr Goff, said that the Government would wait until submissions from interested parties were received before a policy decision was made on the report. It was important to invest in education, Mr Goff said, because of the “rapid social and economic change in New Zealand.” Submissions on the Hawke report close on October 28.