The survey - conducted by Nielsen - asked 545 Herald readers with school-age children a range of questions about the standards system, which came into force this week.The main results:
- 73,.2% support the introduction of National Standards.
- 13.8% oppose them.
- Only 11.9% fully understand them.
- 53.9% think they will have a good effect on their children.
- A number of Herald readers (all of whom live in Auckland) agree with the position taken by most of the Herald's columnists on the issue. Surprise surprise.
- Despite most people having an opinion on National Standards, few actually understand them.
- 545 people is not a huge sample of the population.
Meanwhile Key and his media sympathisers continue to portray the NZEI as just another militant union, whose only concern is to protect "bad" teachers. This strategy has the potential to backfire badly on the Government, because I suspect most people think teachers do a good job.
The biggest lie being pedalled by those who support National Standards is that they will expose bad teachers. But most schools already know who isn't performing. So what difference will the new standards make to the assessment of teachers? Bugger-all.
It's not just national standards where people know stuff-all, but somehow think that nevertheless, their opinion is valid and meaningful.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should "have a civics, literacy test before people can vote"?
Been tried before? Bad idea? :)
I have no issue with people having an opinion on things they have no clue about. We're a democracy after all. That means everyone has a say, not just a selected elite. That's why civics tests and similar voter qualifications are fundamentally anti-democratic.
ReplyDeleteBut newspaper editors should know better than to regard the opinions of the self-confessed ignorant as newsworthy.