Notes Towards a New Agenda for Policy-Making in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

As the smoke cleared away from the battlefield during the truce of Christmas 1992, a degree of clarity began to emerge about the state of education in New Zealand. After four years of struggle it became apparent that however the outstanding issues were resolved in 1993 there would be legacy of problems, largely but not wholly, associated with those reforms that sought to turn education into a market and knowledge into a commodity. Not all reforms were tarnished by the market brush. Some, like the development of the national curriculum, appeared to be serendipitous, while others like government support for more Kura Kaupapa Schools betokened a degree of tolerance and understanding not, hitherto, associated with recent educational policymaking. Yet others, were clearly glossed by market policies but betokened the deeper trends of post-industrial society - the rise in tertiary enrolments for example. 1993 is, of course, a key year, for an election at least allows the possibility of taking stock of the current direction of educational policy. Equally importantly, it is women's suffrage year and many of the educational problems that now comfront us are ones women, in one way or another will ultimately have to cope with.