• Schools using free and open-source software.

• Teaching ways of thinking that allows students to learn, as opposed to rote learning which leaves students helpless when change comes along.

• Allowing every student to reach their full potential. Right now we just make sure they reach some bar.

• Adding Portuguese to the languages we teach and offer qualifications in.

• Allow a better balance of theory and practice in all subjects. Theory is important, but is pointless without practice. Students should learn how to do things, and be able to understand what they're actually doing.

• Any religious instruction in public schools should be opt-in, and should not go on during regular class hours. Preferably, it would not be at all. Religious instruction in schools is a fantastic way to make non-religious students, or students from other religions, feel alienated. Keep in mind that that's fifty percent of the population is not affiliated with Christianity.

• Better language education in general. Language classes shouldn't just teach boilerplate questions and answers. I think tools like Duolingo should be used to supplement language classes.

• More lessons on cooking and healthy eating. Not only is this a basic life skill, students coming home and cooking for their families would reduce financial stress, if only by a little, and would lower healthcare costs.

• Better enforce sex-education laws. I was not given sex education, and my friends who still go to that school say that they have not received it either. Not all of us are fortunate enough to already be educated about that sort of thing. I also think sex education should be given earlier than high school. I think 12 is a good age.

• More control in the hands of the teachers. Teachers should have more say over what is being taught, without having to leave teaching (the thing they're passionate about) to go and write the curriculum.

• More tinkering, and learning how things really work.

• Research into how boys and girls think, so we can teach boys and girls in ways that are more effective. Our current system is better suited to girls, and we need a balanced system so our boys don't fall behind.

• Classes that aren't so rigidly tied to age.

I'm sure there's plenty more that I've discussed before, but this is what comes to mind right now.

Golly, don't get me started!

More than anything, I would like to see more freedom for students to pursue their own interests, in their own way, at their own pace ie self-directed learning in a supportive environment.

Students should not have to conform with a system that doesn't meet their needs and/or aspirations. Any compulsory subjects and/or content should be very carefully considered, and only included if really considered necessary and in the students' best interests.

English is very helpful after school

I am interested in examining the role, direction, structure, ownership and financing of Universities, Polytechs, Private Training Establishments, Charter Schools, State Schools, and Early Childhood Centres.
Does anyone have anything to add to this?

Revolutionising the education system

For all fundamental subjects - esp. areas such as maths & sciences:

To transition from a geographically centralised system based on classroom education, to a decentralised E-education system, with randomly generated instantaneous limitless multiple chance E-exams - when the learner is ready - until the user has passed. Test results can be revisited any time, and tests can be re-attempted any time - can revise and even achieve better grades as more criteria are successfully met.

Lessons and learning can take place anywhere, anytime via e-media, or with sessions facilitated by a personally chosen and designated tutor, learning guide, teacher, lecturer, or companion with appropriate/relevant professional knowledge, etc..
Subject tests can then be attempted at a self-paced rate, with student-centred choice and control over what they wish to learn - the career and lifestyles they wish to fulfil - the aspects of life they yearn to explore.
An alternative system to the current institutionally driven, limited, rigid, authoritarian teaching-learning and assessment paradigm.

Counts toward credit for general ed., as well as prerequisite and entrance requirements into higher level fields of education learning and activity - NZQA, IB, Cambridge, etc. no longer have the monopoly on the curricula timetable to be followed, nor the style of assessment! Can even be used for various undergrad subjects that are more or less regurgitation of well known advanced fields of knowledge that merely extend secondary school subjects. Users can then focus more on research and development activities and projects based on their own interests and curiosities at their own pace, assisted by support, sponsorship and consultation with relevant community stakeholders - student development/research project teams could essentially organise themselves into sociocratic student taskforces as part of their learning experiences.
Employed people can also gain education and upskill at their own pace - tailoring personal education programmes according to personal selection of modules of niche skills they wish to develop. Education need never end, it can continue steadily, cheap, cost-effective or free for the most part, while we all still continue to get on with our careers, professions and lifestyles at a steady pace.

Automatically generated and shareable e-learning e-portfolio, as modules are completed - shows live updates on expertise in the areas of learning that have been validated as each test has been completed indicating to what level in each subject we are qualified.

No longer have to cram a rigid curriculum into the first 20 or so years of life. Can be a self owns, self directed, self-paced, self chosen syllabus of learning assisted by consultation with relevant and appropriate community stakeholders.

Let's start this business!

What does everyone think?

Prepare for the P2P revolution!

Never enrol into a rigidly structured non-democratic education programme again!
From birth to "PhD"

If only the MoE provided greater incentives to support autonomous learning and autonomous educators, that would help the movement - similar to idea of govt supported LMC midwives and obstetricians in the health sector. Also need to build up the ICT sector infrastructure to better support autonomous learning opportunities.

What this essentially means in relation to our nationalised education industry organisations, is that all the organisations under the MoE such as NZQA all need to get together, bang their heads and start developing a platform for intelligent randomly generated online assessments to instantly award credits any time of the year, that can also sync with a personal e-portfolio platform. No longer limited to the infamous “exam time”. Many universities would also see a great reduction in time spent assessing courses, as they could also create assessments using such a method. If the assessments are provided open and free, then virtually anyone could undergo the learning required at their own pace anywhere in the world.

The govt/NZQA would then also be incentivised to implement a feature to enrol international e-students – providing services and social good internationally – perhaps also generating a revenue if feasible.

e-NZQA could become a provider of a generic platform for organisations to host MOOAs (massive open online assessments), and e-NZ would be one step closer to becoming a competitor in borderless digital citizen markets that are currently dominated by the likes of Google, Apple, and e-Estonia.

Education should include growing preparing and enjoying food

Agreed, modules that include community based projects on sustainability and local horticulture are a definite need.

@maelwryth Agreed, as a dual option it would gradually grow in popularity, until such time that the industry is developed enough that it can out-compete the traditional paradigms of "school facility" education, putting the old ways out of business.

In regards to the idea of local community based "teachers/learning facilitators", I think support for this could also be approached through an amendment to the government's charter/partnership schools policy to include allowing, supporting, and promoting the idea of community based "partnership learning facilitators". Something to hit up David Seymour about I think.

Wow, I think that was the first time I have ever deleted a comment (it said something William had already covered)

OK, I have pointed out this before but I found it entertaining so I will again https://www.khanacademy.org/math is quite a fun game.

There are a couple of things I would like to bring up though.

One is that part of the schooling system is to socialise children. It doesn't do it very well, but it does do it.

Also, there would need to be a boot strap. This could be kindergarten or parental tuition but someone needs to teach the kids the system and bootstrap then into it.

What about children with disabilities and learning difficulties?

You would need to pass so many things per day otherwise you would have to go to school would be an interesting idea. Some sort of bell curve where if you fell out of it you would either be given attention to correct the problem or for your advanced status.

School also acts as a check on child abuse by forcing children to be exposed to others. A stay at home system would have to handle this in some other way.

How do you do PE classes?

Hey Maelwryth, I think an idea akin to the creation of independent local "learning facilitators" would be an appropriate entity to serve to bootstrap people young and old into the e-learning paradigm. They could work at all levels - ECE, Primary, Secondary, Higher education. Maybe not ECE though... just seems a bit inhumane...
If it was govt supported then independent teachers/learning facilitators could also be employed public servants. See the new proposal I just created.

Actually, maybe independent "learning facilitators" is exactly what ECE needs too, from the stories I've been hearing about teacher's work experiences at ECE establishments and not wanting to send their own kids there.

outside actually doing pyhsical stuff at least 50% of time, (edit) thats 50% of time in school not just PE

I think wikiMOOCs will be the way to go eventually.
http://educateria.com/tag/wikimooc/
Blending the collaborative wiki styles of https://www.p2pu.org/en/ and an element of DOCCs
Hopefully a complementary qualifications registry would also eventually be established too - wikiMOOQR or wikiOQR

@colinengland that's the thing, I'm sure the best methods can be researched and taught to teachers, especially regarding pedagogy, and even applied in schools and in independent contexts. When talking about the way curriculum is structured, however, the end goals in mind really determine the way that curriculum is structured and this can be very variable and according to all sorts of preferences and opportunities available.
The govt has set some ideal goal about the purpose of education being to enable citizens to become successful participants in the economy - and this is important in some aspects however it could still be more comprehensive to include many more aspects such as areas of human rights that have yet to be catered to.
Sometimes it does take a bit of research & development to figure out how best to cater to gaps in the human rights economy, and sometimes that knowledge can only be discovered through trial and experience in the field. In which case, perhaps if the govt were to delve into "partnership teachers", then maybe they would also be experimental radicals overseen by universities just like the partnership schools.

Whether we have much of a say in it or not, it looks like the govt is transitioning the education sector towards one where teachers are more or less "learning facilitators" anyway. Still in schools though. From there it wouldn't be much of a far cry for the teachers also to become more independent from affiliation with traditional education establishments:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/73042309/Top-schools-give-multi-million-dollar-classrooms-a-fail-grade

According to great Aunt Google, education has two meanings.
1) the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.
2) an enlightening experience.

In my own early education (1-18), I believe that 1 was largely the enabler of 2. Note that enlightening has the meaning of,"give (someone) greater knowledge and understanding about a subject or situation." but I feel school should also include challenges to thought patterns and expansions of.

In fact, I believe modern schooling should be a high tech bi directional investigation of the student and the world around him/her.

I think they should have medical checks, brain scans, guest talks, teachers, philosophy, have to argue the other side as well as their own, critical thinking, other ways of thinking, cultural studies, religious and atheist studies, rigorously tested on which methods of learning work best on them and that they should (from the very start) own their own data and (apart from mind tricks, communications, mathematics, anti-manipulation, and philosophy) should be able to self direct their own learning from year zero.

As part of education, any action to mould the minds of the young for present or future profit would be banned (see advertising) until an age where they are well versed in the methods that will be used on them.

...well, that sort of thing anyway. :)

Modern education is a lot more like that than what it was when I was at school. It's no longer simply about memorising stuff as it was when I went to school. It's now about teaching the children to think and view critically.

National seems to hate it.

This is it. (From https://desktopregulatorystate.wordpress.com/)

Chapter Seven–Fundamental Infrastructures: Education and Credentialing
Introduction: Whom Do Present-Day Schools Really Serve
Alternative Models
Potential Building Blocks for an Open Alternative
Open Course Materials
Open Textbooks
Open Learning Platforms
Credentialing

Got this awesome email back from toku Minita Nikki Kaye too fyi:

Dear William

Minister Kaye has asked me to thank you for your email and transcript about the future of education and the growing influence of digital technologies on the way education is delivered in New Zealand.

On 3 December Minister Kaye released an outline of work underway to harness the power of digital technologies to transform teaching and learning, which I’ve attached.

You’ll see that many of the themes you describe in your email are reflected in these initiatives. The Ministry of Education will continue to develop and adapt their plans as digital technologies are adopted by students and educators, and as new technologies emerge.

Thank you for taking the time to email.

Kind regards

Margaret-Anne

Margaret-Anne Barnett | Private Secretary

Hon Nikki Kaye | Associate Minister of Education

Parliament Buildings, PO Box 18041, Wellington 6160, New Zealand

T: 04 817 9769| F: 04 817 6537 | Mob: 027 224 6911

E: [email protected] ( [email protected] )

www.nikkikaye.co.nz ( http://www.nikkikaye.co.nz/ ) | www.beehive.govt.nz ( http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ )

The globalist policy of charging Australia citizens large fees for tertiary education is geared to creating future debt slaves according to Noam Chomsky of MIT. Do we want a future of slavery for our future generations? We need to go back to the focus of Australia being the clever country. Tertiary education needs to be free, especially in a fiat currency system, where the central bank is free to print money at their whim. Free tertiary education is pivotal in allowing Australia to compete and operate in ever more technical markets.

Free tertiary education is pivotal in allowing Australia to compete and operate in ever more technical markets.

It's pretty much pivotal for every country to develop both their economy and their culture.

And every country can create it's own money. As long as that doesn't go beyond local resource availability there won't be any inflation from it. Need to stop the private banks from creating their own money though.