On this I agree with the union
March 22nd, 2013 at 12:00 pm by David FarrarThe Herald reports:
The Ministry of Education is bloated, inefficient and making the jobs of principals more difficult by “stealing their precious time” making them fill out paperwork, says the outgoing president of the Secondary Principals’ Association.
In his final comment to members this week, Patrick Walsh wrote that he had met many hardworking and highly skilled Ministry employees.
“It has, however, struck me as odd that in an era of self-managing schools we have a ministry that is so large and yet not able to perform in an effective and efficient manner. …
Mr Walsh, who steps down after three years as Spanz president on Tuesday, told the Herald that despite having about 3000 employees, the Ministry had underperformed for more than a decade.
I agree with Mr Walsh. i think significant structural change is needed for the Ministry.
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March 22nd, 2013 at 12:20 pm
You couldn’t be more right David, and anyone who tells them that is instatly labelled a useless git!
Vote:March 22nd, 2013 at 12:30 pm
Given its active (although unstated) policy of social engineering and the spreading of socialist doctrine and the promotion of anti-family liberal agendas, it would be interesting to discover how many of the habitues of said Minisntry joined it during the Clark administration. I suspect the number would be quite high.
Also, isn’t there a certain irony that the president of one union should declare that the members of another union are ‘underperforming’, and that the ‘padded’ government department is inefficient? Shades of the USSR…
His comments would seem to indicate that evidently there is no honour amongst thieves.
Vote:March 22nd, 2013 at 12:51 pm
The in effectiveness of many Ministers of Education is partly because of the performance of the Ministry. Education is an issue that could lose a government the election and Ms Parata and her Ministry would be in my cross hairs.
Vote:March 22nd, 2013 at 1:02 pm
But where are all these ex Teachers to go ???
Vote:MOE is jobs for the Girls -
March 22nd, 2013 at 1:04 pm
Often the quality of the Ministry has a lot to do with the perceived quality of the Minister…they must be really hopeless at the moment!
Vote:March 22nd, 2013 at 1:20 pm
Former PPTA principals’ council president Karen Sewell was one of the highest paid Ministry heads but during her tenure the Ministry of Education was ranked bottom for effectiveness and performance. She was the Education CEO responsible for the tender process and then the decision to go with Novopay, when she was reporting to then Ministers Trevor Mallard and Chris Carter. Chris Hipkins was an adviser to the Minister during that period but claims his hands are clean!
Sewell was appointed by the SSC as was her successor, a rather lowly ranked English public servant with no knowledge of NZ or its education system.
I know the current minister always wears the blame but surely there are other far more involved players here. The SSC always gets off scot free for its many flawed appointments. Karen Sewell is being highly paid yet again by the Ministry as a consultant before and after Lesley Longstone’s departure due to foreseeable incompetence and failure in the job. Mallard has had a brain fade about his role as the father of Novopay.
Hekia Parata, a new minister, bears the full brunt and the baying of the hounds.
Vote:March 22nd, 2013 at 9:33 pm
Paulus (1,569) Says:
But where are all these ex Teachers to go ???
MOE is jobs for the Girls –
Ex teachers? Really? Look at this. …….
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/theMinistry/AboutUs/LeadershipTeam/LeadershipTeam.aspx
5 out of the 7 Deputy Secretaries are not from a teaching background.
Would you like a person from a non medical back ground advising your surgeon? Or perhaps a non-electrician telling your sparky how to wire your house?
So perhaps you can share the frustrations that teachers and principals have with much of the ridiculous and irrelevant policy and waffle put out by the Ministry of Education!
Out of touch, no regard for the provinces, full of false optimism. Just look at their recent attempts to try and prevent drug dogs in schools. (Which fortunately appears to have been reconsidered)
Vote:March 22nd, 2013 at 11:25 pm
It amazes me that you folk comment on education as though you have the slightest clue. You don’t even understand or know that the Secondary Principals Association is a Professional Body not a union. Many of the problems in education can be linked to an ineffective Ministry but of course they are tasked with doing the Ministers bidding. I’m pretty sure that the culture of fear and mistrust that the Ministry is actively undertaking is coming from the Ministers Office. Maybe this is why debacles like the Class Size increases and Novapay occur – who in their right mind in these times would knock on Mrs Haughty’s door and tell her her ideas are ridiculous?
Vote:March 23rd, 2013 at 8:29 am
kiwigunner
+1
Vote:March 24th, 2013 at 12:18 pm
An entire ministry dedicated to making one size fit all – and it’s failing … Who’d have thunk it…
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