📋 Tender Overview
The Haps ACT is doing a brisk trade in tickets to the annual Rally, It will be held in Auckland in less than two weeks, Sunday July 13. As usual the guest speaker alone will be worth the ticket. After Paul Henry last year James Lindsay, co-author of (a serious diagnosis and cure for wokery) **is this years special guest. Please get your tickets here, it sold out last year. The Education Section 127 Debacle Over the past fortnight, a whole lot of controversy has grown up around Section 127 of the Education and Training Act. This week goes into the debacle in depth, for two reasons. For one thing, the issue really matters, and well say why we think that is. For another, the whole saga is a good case study in politics. Nobodys version is quite the whole truth, and were going to try and show how these things go wrong. Finally, were going to show the Government is actually fixing this problem. The clause at issue is Clause 8 of the Amendment Bill. An Amendment Bill is not a new law in itself, it makes changes to an existing law. In this case The Education and Training Amendment Bill is changing the Education and Training Act. Clause 8 of the Amendment Bill specifically modifies Section 127 of the Education and Training Act. (Were spelling this all out because Clauses in Amendment Bills changing Sections in Acts can be hard to follow, even for MPs who are supposed to be doing it every day). Anyway, Clause 8 says that Section 127(2)(e) of the updated Act will read: These are all things that school boards must do. They matter because they shape what happens in the classroom. They are the reason hears from parents furious that children are taken away from learning maths, English, and science to do te reo Maori. Theyre insulted when folk tales passed down through the generations (but never written down) are taught to be equal with the scientific progress of humanity. Saying a prayer before each lesson is outrageous in a secular school, and no its not less outrageous if you call it a Karakia. But the school system requires children to do lots of things. Why not make sure students learn about the Maori worldview? Surely opposing that but still wanting children to learn maths, science, and English is just anti-Maori racism? Actually, it isnt. The problem with this section of the law is not that its Maori. The same objection would hold if the section required students to understand a Catholic worldview, or to study the history of England and the English worldview. The real problem is children being taught for adults politics instead of their own good. Why are children taught maths? For their own good. Even if you somehow manage to get a job that doesnt require maths, you will still need to manage your own finances and work out how to double a recipe. What about being able to read and write in at least one language? Impossible your life will be happy without it. But the requirement to learn about a particular culture or religion? These are political projects for adults, not investments in a better life for children. You might get a job without knowing any science, but the world around you, even looking after your own body, is much easier to navigate if you know some. Science requirements are for the benefit of the child themselves. Now, heres the plot twist. Despite what some may have you believe, Erica Stanford is NOT introducing this wording into the Education and Training Act. No, you can find it in the current version of Education and Training Act as Section 127(d). The Amendment Bill is the words but it is not them. You can read it yourself here. Erica said this on the radio on Friday morning, but what the Hosk did not ask her is why dont you just remove it if its already there. Perhaps he didnt ask because shed already said something else, that Section 127 will be reviewed as part of the Governments wider review of Treaty clauses. has it on good authority that ACT argued to just remove it now. If a bill is being passed, just include the deletion in it. ACT settled for a deal of having this section explicitly included in the wider review. That is the reality of coalition Government. We now expect that the Education Bill will pass this year, and a new bill reviewing all Treaty clauses will be introduced to Parliament early next year and passed before the election. Altogether the problem WILL be fixed, but politics has made it more complicated than it needed to be. Meanwhile, some people have really made hay out of the situation, but missed some important details in doing so. Press Contact media@act.org.nz
