How Wrong They Were

Ahead of the baby boomers I rose through the education bureaucratic ranks in the late 1970s and early 80s. They were hectic years, education was a growth industry. Progress, or at least a sense of progress dominated the scene. It was assumed all that needed to be done was to update and improve the system developed in the 60s and 70s.

But inside the corridors and the rooms of the high rise buildings around Parliament another change was gestating. I had inklings but like my peers did not foresee it in any totality. Connections between the oil-shocks and education were rarely made at the time. Indeed, understanding and acknowledgment of influences and interconnections between the economy and the education sector was extremely patchy.

Two activists led the Department of Education, Bill Renwick and Peter Boag. Very different in their approaches, both men contributed to the atmosphere of development. Conferences and reviews were expected to usher in new developments. Many things were happening. Possibly the most far-reaching was the rapid expansion of technical institutes, (now polytechnics). Three-year primary teacher training was introduced. Teachers gained representation on secondary boards of governors and education boards.

Pressure to broaden the senior secondary curriculum mounted, and increasingly schools offered a wider range of options for their students. Two alternative secondary schools opened, Four Avenues in Christchurch and Auckland Metropolitan College. A new exemplar secondary school building (called the Whanau) was designed. The Hawkes Bay Community College opened. The passage of the Private Schools Integration Act in 1975 gave private schools the chance to join the public sector as full state schools while still maintaining their special character.

Everything was being reviewed or changed it seemed. Working parties investigated speech therapy training, second language learning, health and social education, the certification, registration and discipline of teachers, and school libraries, (I chaired this one). The Arts were not neglected; schemes for a Composer in Schools and Performers in Schools were introduced.

A change of Government did not slow the charge. Les Gandar initiated developments in Maori, health and rural education. Special reserve quotas were introduced into teacher education to bring in more Maori, Pacific Islands and older trainees. Pilot education centres were opened in Auckland, New Plymouth and Alexandra to provide a range of resources, reference material and equipment to enable teachers to develop their own teaching materials. With growing unemployment, more and more training programmes for unskilled school leavers were introduced.

Not one of these developments was unworthy. Each improved the system. They increased educational opportunities, especially for many previously disadvantaged. Generally speaking they were not divisive because amongst educational leaders there existed a broad consensus though talk was more radical than the delivery - that was still through a very centralised system with many complex decision points. However, they were piecemeal and tended to clog the system with their sheer volume. They represented the then paternalistic and patriarchal nature of the system.

Although attempts had been made to involve parents and the community the feeling remained that these views were not being properly represented in the decision process. A storm was gathering that was going to sweep these efforts up and drastically alter them. Its approach was signalled by an increasing chorus of criticism over the blank cheque nature of education. There was a growing sense in other parts of the public sector, especially Treasury but not confined to it, that education as a big spender must be more accountable.

To many in the establishment, Merv Wellington, who succeeded Les Gandar after he was defeated in the 1978 election, was seen during his six year stint as Minister as a deviation rather than a forerunner of change. With the defeat of the Muldoon Government in 1984 they foresaw a return to the unbridled professional charge of earlier years. How wrong they were.