With good reason

We need to teach our kids to have good arguments, says educationalist Hugh Kemp.

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The delayed introduction to elements of the new NCEA framework can be interpreted as a confused (and confusing) landscape on which our next generation of students and teachers must walk. Mātauranga Māori, the new history syllabus, and the prioritising of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) at the expense of the humanities are recognised contours. Our poverty in literacy and numeracy, along with the opportunities and risks of AI, loom on the horizon of our conversations. Well, at least, they should.

Every point of view is a view from a point. I teach at a large Auckland high school, but I do so solely within the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. I therefore look at NCEA from the outside. I am in charge of the Theory of Knowledge course. This is a course in knowing, ways of knowing, methods of knowing, and specific exploration of various disciplines' approaches to knowing (including indigenous knowledge, in which we can engage richly with mātauranga Māori). Essentially, it's a course in critical thinking.