Steiner Schools have an Integration Agreement with the Crown, preserving the special character of those schools which follow a system that meets the needs of its students out of an anthroposophical understanding of child development. This includes not formally teaching basic reading and maths until the children are or approaching 7 years. This is practiced in a number of schools in New Zealand and is quite common in Europe.
Minister of Education Anne Tolley said "If proprietors wish the Steiner schools to remain integrated, I expect the boards to submit their charters as required by the ministry and that the charters will set targets in relation to national standards."
So:
In other words, targets will be set to compare Steiner school children with other children in the State system. However to do so would label 5 to 8 year old Steiner students as failures, as they would only have just started formal learning in reading & maths if at all.
Then:
Anne Tolley again: “ ... If any board of a Steiner school cannot accept this, the proprietor has the option of requesting the cancellation of the school's integration agreement so that the school becomes a private school which does not have all the obligations of state schools. “ ....and no State funding.
It is interesting to note that Finnish schools along with South Korea ( State control) lead the OECD educational results tables. Both systems are totally different in the assessments, timeframes and methods used. You could not however apply the assessments, timeframes and methods of one to the other, each would indicate the other a failure.
In New Zealand the Minister is insisting on applying South Korean assessments to the Finnish model (or in our case Steiner).
A simple analogy would be to say Daniel Carter (school of Rugby) is a failure as a sportsman, because the minister would have us assess him using the Winton Ruffer school of soccer assessment criteria.
HOW FAIR IS THAT?
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