“Education is the key, the key to what, which house, which doorway?” were the words neatly inscribed on a visibly stressed cue card as I trembled in front of my peers delivering the dreaded Form 6 speech, over 15 years ago.

How things come full circle. Subconsciously, my conviction then as a young learner that early education is a tell-all for what will be, has remained constant.   

Over the course of the next decade, during my time as a tertiary learning consultant and later as a student success advisor and freelance researcher, I found myself pondering the same questions. It seems a natural progression that I am now researching education policy fulltime at the Initiative.

My initial observation from the literature is that like my own educational pathway, the New Zealand education system has come full circle. It strikes me that the themes of 20 years ago remain much the same.

On the global stage, New Zealand students continue to perform at above average scores, although in a declining fashion. Then, as now, the system is characterised by great levels of disparity between the top and bottom performers, in spite of efforts by the government in the 80s to close this gap.

2013 National Standard results show that New Zealand’s most vulnerable learners are consistently failing. At every stage, Maori, Pasifika and students from low income families, on average, still lag behind their peers. Worse, the schools struggling to retain rolls and in need of external interventions are most likely to be those that serve this cohort.

The 1999 New Zealand Council for Educational Research found that in the period from 1980 to 1990, funding, staffing, professional development, leadership, curriculum, parental involvement, competition, choice, and special needs education were some of the key areas to address in the system. In the 2014 Briefing to the Incoming Minister of Education, many of these same concerns re-appear on the list of opportunities for improvement.

Does this mean New Zealanders should resign themselves to staring at the same issues 20 years from now? Certainly not. If New Zealand hopes to break this cycle, changes must be made. Further research into education, specifically to identify what works, what does not, and opportunities for innovation is needed. It is a task that I look forward to taking up.