Long-distance learning

Long-distance learning

What Britain could learn from New Zealand about home-schooling

Spectator 20 Feb 2021 p 19  Stephen Prendergast

Decimalised here for ease of reading and location.

1. If ever there was a moment to address the issue of home-schooling, it is now. The pandemic has disrupted teaching, school life and examinations in catastrophic ways. 
2. 
   
3. Many children will now never get the education they would have had. But every crisis is an opportunity — and this crisis offers the chance to reform education in radical ways for the better.
4. 
   
5. The Correspondence School/Te Kura approach is not a revolutionary concept. It is similar in many ways to the Open University. In New Zealand, Te Kura has delivered distance or home learning to children at all school levels over many generations. 
6. 
   
7. Te Kura educates around 23,000 pupils each year (in a population of around five million), making it the country’s largest state school. It covers all curriculum years at primary and secondary level, as well as helping mature pupils study for exams they previously missed. 
8. 
   
9. During New Zealand’s lockdowns, day school pupils have been able to enrol in Te Kura to help supplement their education, and Kiwi pupils who are overseas are also able to enrol at the school.
10. 
    
11. The author writes about his mother who worked as a primary school teacher, how the Te Kura approach has adapted to societal change in NZ, and the strong emphasis on vocational education, among other topics.
12. 
    
13. Unfortunately for British parents, there’s no centralised distance learning model like this in the UK. Anyone who has tried to educate their children at home — either before or during the pandemic — won’t need me to tell them this. 
14. 
    
15. Over the past year, home education has in large part been provided remotely via individual schools, with mixed results. Exams have been cancelled, and many pupils’ academic progress will have been hindered.
16. 
    
17. In addition to the children who are currently trying to learn at home while their schools are closed, a correspondence school would also help children who were already being educated at home before the pandemic began, for a multitude of reasons. 
18. 
    
19. Estimates for the number of children outside the normal day school education system range from around 50,000 to a quarter of a million, and the number will almost certainly have risen during the pandemic. 
20. 
    
21. For children like this whose education isn’t organised via an individual school, their parents need to understand the curriculum and then overcome the difficulties of trying to arrange individual exams with different exam boards and at different locations.
22. 
    
23. Right now, there are only a few options for anyone outside of the school system who chooses to educate their children at home and cannot afford to rely on private tutors.
24.  
25. There is the Oak Academy which, with government support, is beginning the process of delivering distance learning. It is a positive development, but it does not have the scale to support the huge number of children in need. 
26. 
    
27. There are private companies offering GCSE and A-level correspondence courses, but these charge fees and many do not allow under-16s to enrol. 
28. 
    
29. The best other options are the government’s website and the BBC. But there is no reason why home education couldn’t be provided more effectively (for those who want it) via a national correspondence school. It could bring together teachers and students from around the country.
30. 
    
31. The pandemic has exposed the need for a larger, more comprehensive organisation staffed by fully qualified teachers which can supplement the main school system. I am sure Te Kura would be delighted to offer advice should there be interest here in a similar correspondence school. 

......

pagetop