Principals urge Govt to 'slow down' on education policy rollout

New Zealand principals are asking the Government to "slow down" on its rollout of new education policies.

Yesterday, the Government announced it would be pledging $67 million to the rollout of structured literacy – which would require schools to use the approach when teaching students to read.

In structured literacy, a teacher explicitly explained and modelled key skills, and children were not expected to develop skills from exposure or incidental learning opportunities. Students used sounds and phonics to understand words.

The Government has embarked on a major revamp of the education system, introducing cell phone bans; a mandatory hour of reading, writing, and maths; and the structured literacy approach.

In a statement this morning, the New Zealand Principals Federation called on the Government to slow down the implementation of its policies.

"The abrupt shift in priorities and expectations is disruptive and undermines the ability of educators to provide quality teaching and support to our students," federation president Leanne Otene said.

"Principals, staff, and boards have invested significant effort in developing annual strategic plans and consulting their communities. Teaching and learning plans, along with ongoing professional development for this term, are already set," she said.

Otene said she welcomed the added funding to the system and "having another funded literacy option to consider" but it was more complex than the Government was making out.

"As self-managing schools, however, we know that a single option will not be effective in every context or for every student in our culturally diverse country."

She said structured literacy was "not a silver bullet" – pointing out that schools had been using it alongside other approaches since 2018.

"That must continue if we want success," said Otene.

"Mandating a single literacy approach for all schools would be a mistake and would not on its own get the increased achievement rates that we all strive for.

"Meaningful collaboration and thoughtful planning are essential to fostering sustainable improvements in our education system.

"There is no short-term fix. To be successful, we need a carefully crafted, long-term, funded strategy, built in collaboration with the profession," she said.

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