Parents are critical to education success and I feel our decline in education mirrors a decline in parenting:
‘In term three of 2023, only 47 per cent of students were regularly attending school (40 per cent for Years 9-13). For
Māori and Pasifika, it was 34 per cent.’
Diabolical! That’s not our schools fault. That’s parenting (although our govt encouraged slackness/ kindness/ low expectation).
‘The top 30 high schools have their leavers graduating with University Entrance at 87 per cent. The bottom 30 schools have their leavers graduating with University Entrance at 3 per cent.’
That’s not student achievement. I guarantee that’s parenting. Our govt fiddles with teachers and curriculum, when it’s actually up to us as a community to make sure our kids are read to every night and go to school every day.
From personal experience it’s parental attitude - the good parents get good kids and poor parenting produce poor kids. Good education can’t overcome this. We just tip money down a hole in ambulance at the bottom of the cliff mentality.