Add a Comment   Return to Previous Page

Bureaucracy Revisited

Entry 179, on 2005-06-04 at 13:16:28 (Rating 3, News)

A report, commissioned by our Ministry of Education, has just been released listing the major reasons teachers feel they aren't producing as good an education system as they should. This is significant, because a recent survey found most New Zealander's think the education system is getting worse, despite the input of huge amounts of extra money.

So why do teaches think the education system isn't as good as it could be? There were two major reasons. First, the extra, non-productive work, associated with implementing the new qualifications and assessment system, the NCEA. Second, the ridiculous amounts of paper work they are expected to produce.

Where do these two pressures come from? Primarily from well-meaning (presumably) organisations, like the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, and Education Review Office, who think better eduction is a produced through tighter control and increased documentation.

Possibly sub-standard teachers will be discovered through a system like this so that they can be helped to improve or can be removed from the system, but for the average and good teachers it just represents time spent creating piles of largely meaningless documentation instead of getting on with the actual core activity of teaching.

So really the more the bureaucrats try to improve the education system, the more they are actually achieving the exact opposite - the system is actually getting worse because of their interference. Well, at least they have good documentation on how poor the system has become!

There are no comments for this entry.

You can leave comments about this entry using this form.

Enter your name (optional):
Enter your email address (optional):
Enter the number shown here:
Enter the comment:

To add a comment: enter a name and email (optional), type the number shown, enter a comment, click Add.
Note that you can leave the name blank if you want to remain anonymous.
Enter your email address to receive notifications of replies and updates to this entry.
The comment should appear immediately because the authorisation system is currently inactive.

I do podcasts too! You can listen to my latest podcast, here: OJB's Podcast 2026-04-14 How Far is that Star?: How would we really know how big the universe is? Or subscribe to my podcast RSS feed, on my RSS Feeds page.

If you're not sure what to view from the thousands of pages on my site, here are some suggestions: My Latest Airshow Report (photos and movies from Warbirds Over Wanaka, 2026), My Favourite Wines and Beers (tasting notes for some of my favourites), An Interesting Astronomical Observation (learn a bit about astronomy from these observing notes), See Some Photos (A short rail journey through the Taieri Gorge), Read Some Mac Tips (Learn about how to use your Mac, and fix some problems).

Latest Site News and Notifications (Desktop): You are currently viewing OJB's web site, version 2.4 which has some major changes, and possibly errors! Please report any problems to ojb@mac.com.