John B. Turner – 23/1/98
John Turner is a Senior Lecturer in Photography, at the Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland. He is the Director and Managing Editor of PhotoForum Inc, and is a council member of the Society for Photographic Education in New Zealand (SPENZ).
The `Tertiary Education Review Green Paper’
Is it a sham? Although couched in terms of “improving” the “quality” and “delivery” of tertiary education, there is widespread suspicion among teachers that the Coalition Government’s green paper, “A Future Tertiary Education Policy for New Zealand: Tertiary Education Review,” is a sham. That Government has already made up its mind to turn right, but needs some kind of rubber stamp to make the decision appear to be democratic.
Inadequate response time – Why? Why else, the sceptics say, was the Green Paper issued on 11 September 1997, with submissions invited on the paper until 15 December? (Or for that matter, why was the companion Green Paper on Teacher Training treated entirely separately, and teachers given even less time to respond?) The timing of these Green Papers alone could hardly have been worse for teachers involved with the practicalities of the examination process. Cynics see this as a deliberate political ploy to prevent fuller discussion of the issues and implications of any reforms.
Is it genuine? Based on the way earlier Health and Education reforms were carried out, there is some justification for the argument that we are witnessing and participating in a sham engineered by extreme Right wing thinkers to undermine publicly funded liberal education.
The impact on educators There is no doubt that many educators who want to have their institutions correct their own faults, are reluctant to say so, because they fear that any healthy, normal self-criticism will be used against their schools or departments, rather than helping to improve them.
They do not want education to go the same way as Health through disastrous reforms, when unsettled, potentially more successful (“profitable”) components can more easily yield to the argument that they could make more profit if they were sold off to private business interests. This suspicion is reinforced by the underlying tone of the Green Paper which espouses “competition” rather than the traditional “cooperation” as the right way to go.
Comments by Roger Kerr and Hugh Fletcher In this respect it exactly echoes the words of Roger Kerr, the Executive Director of the Business Round Table, who was recently criticised by the liberal business leader, Hugh Fletcher, of Fletcher Holdings, who characterised the Business Round Table as being too extreme and out of touch with mainstream business philosophy.
“If we are serious about upgrading our human resources,” Mr Kerr said (`The Independent”, 23 May 1997) “we must expose schools and tertiary institutions to the types of disciplines prevailing elsewhere in the economy. Above all, we need to introduce more competition.”
Then he expresses his underlying and undermining attitude to public education: “Not only do state primary, secondary and tertiary institutions need to compete amongst themselves much more. We must also remove the funding discrimination against the private sector preventing private institutions from competing on an equal basis with state institutions.”
The buzz words of the new Right applied to education In other words, “competition” and “privatisation”, which along with “market forces” and “the economy” are the buzz words of the new Right, are seen to be the answer for education, as they were for Health. Look out for new definitions of “quality,” and “student driven” “choices” as well.
Education surely an exception to market place rules It does not seem to enter the minds of Mr Kerr and his followers in the Treasury, the Ministry of Education, nor our Universities and Polytechs, that perhaps Education, like Health, might be an exception to the dog eat dog rules of the market place. Or that our public education system, once recognised as among the best in the world, is exhibiting signs of dumbing down precisely because his followers in education circles have set in motion policies and priorities that work against sound educational principles.
Or, to use a metaphor which the Minister of Education, as an ex sheep farmer, will understand, setting the wrong dog among the sheep will surely lead to disaster.
Liberal education must resist “commodification”. Many teachers like myself are sick of the rhetoric of the Right. While some of their favourite strategies might work for some businesses, they should listen to those who disagree when it comes to the fine print. But, fundamentally, liberal education does not share the philosophy or purpose of capitalism, and must resist commodification if it is to survive.
Education, in so far as it can work alongside any decently humane political system, must continue the practice of constant vigilance to be, and be seen to be, at the forefront of our liberal democratic system.
Crucial need for a good education system Even after the traumatic circumstances of the birth of our MMP system, with the gross private and public confusion over the paternity of the infant Coalition, there has to be some hope that the infant will gain in health and grow up to make us proud. MMP needs every cent of publicly funded education to teach it wisdom and humility. For the crucial message is that people are more important than money, and good mental health care is something not even money can buy.
Worried teachers tried to improve NZQA standards. Many teachers, like my colleagues in the Society for Photographic Education in New Zealand (SPENZ), were tricked into trying to improve the dubiously conceived and ineptly written New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) standards for secondary education because they are so obviously misrepresentative of the teaching/learning process.
As I wrote for a SPENZ newsletter (June 1997), Derek Olphert, the Society’s most experienced art educationist, felt compelled to spend what amounted to an inordinate amount of unpaid time, just responding on our behalf to “the weird and not-so-wonderful machinations of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority…just to counter the “excesses and folly of NZQA initiatives.” Olphert’s painstaking work, based on his exhaustive knowledge of art education in particular, and governmental politics in general, came with a cost. It sapped most of the energy and good spirit of our Council. SPENZ got involved in this dubious Government initiative, not because it made any sense, educationally – because it did not – but because if we hadn’t, an even uglier monster would have been unleashed on the secondary art sector.
Teachers, parents and students must study the proposed reforms NOW. Whether the Government’s reforms are based on ignorance or a premeditated secret agenda, one cannot tell. But each time one appears there is an urgent need for concerned teachers, parents and students, to try to come to grips with the explicit and implicit ramifications of any proposed reforms.
For this reason, when I can ill afford the time, I have burned the midnight oil reading and thinking and writing about what I understand are the fundamental principles at stake and the inherent contradictions in the arguments that have been put forward.
I am a teacher of photography, not an accountant or economist or politician. But I learnt from a brilliant teacher, Tom Hutchins, more than I can say, and more than many with “higher” qualifications. I have practised primary research to seek answers and new questions about the areas in which I am fortunately not an expert.
To participate in this battle, I recommend that you arm yourself with a good dictionary, a book of quotations, a thesaurus, an encyclopaedia, a book on the fundamentals of education, accountancy, and starting a business. You will need to bring your own history and philosophy to the task, and don’t forget to dip into the enemy’s operational handbooks and read between the lines of their public pronouncements. That said, Good Reading and a Writing new year!
More on this topic from John Turner in part two.
