December 9, 2014 12:00pm by David Farrar

Herald on Educational Success initiative

It lies in a sharp drop in this country’s 15-year-old pupils’ position in mathematics, reading and science in the 2013 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) rankings. This led the Government to seek the insights of the highly influential OECD survey’s designer, Andreas Schleicher.

His key finding is that top-performing countries ensure their most talented school leaders and staff are in the most needy schools. The Government’s means of achieving this involves spending $359 million over four years, some of which will pay the best principals and teachers more to spend time in other schools, and some of which will be used by struggling schools to attract these mentors.

The use of Dr Schleicher’s ideas presented a difficulty for the teacher unions. How could they oppose the prescription of such an acknowledged educational expert? Sensibly, the secondary teachers’ union, the Post Primary Teachers Association, decided to support the programme. So, too, did the Secondary Principals Association. While some PPTA members may have had qualms about this being performance pay in another guise, most clearly saw that it offered a strong incentive for good candidates to enter the teaching profession and remain there.

Regrettably, however, the primary teachers’ union, the NZEI, has remained opposed to the programme. Unconvincingly, it maintains the Government’s money would be better spent helping struggling schools cope with children impaired by poverty and neglect. That overlooks the increasing awareness of the importance of excellent teaching and school leadership.

The NZEI are passionately fighting against their own members being able to earn more money.