Iconic education leaders give their advice on creating a great education system

This article comes from today's New Zealand Herald.  It shares the ideas of two iconic New Zealand educational leaders, Sir John Graham and John Taylor, on what should be done to get the best out of school and country.  The article starts:

'The following suggestions for debate and action are based on our experiences and observations as secondary school teachers and principals over the past 50 years.'

'We appreciate that times have changed and that, as revealed in the recent NZ Institute publication, "More Ladders, Fewer Snakes", the under performance of our disadvantaged youth in our schools is as much a societal as an educational problem, and a key cause of NZ's being anchored in the bottom half of the OECD.'

In brief, the five key factors for improvement identified are:

1. We need to be far more pro-active and bold in attracting, retaining and rewarding high quality teachers.
2. The role and importance of the Principal needs to be more effectively recognised, supported and rewarded.
3. NCEA should be fixed to make it more acceptable to, and adopted by, all secondary schools throughout NZ.
4. The Board of Governance structure set up under Tomorrow's Schools 20 years ago should be reviewed and enhanced.
5. There should uniformly higher expectations and insistence on basic disciplines and respect for the rules. 

To read the article in full, click here.