8 July 2011

Media release: for immediate use

Auckland Education Summit Lays Foundation For Change

Auckland needs a success strategy that will allow the education sector to stimulate the radical changes required to enhance Auckland’s economy and society.

That’s the view expressed by the 180 leaders from across the city’s political, commercial, social and educational landscape who attended the Auckland Education Summit held on 11 May. The event’s convenors, COMET and the Cognition Institute, have today released a discussion document which highlights the directions for change identified by the Summit’s participants, and the activities and policies required to lift the city’s education sector to world class standards.

The discussion document’s two recommendations are to:

• develop an education and skills framework for connecting what Auckland’s education sector delivers to the Auckland Plan; and
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• set simple and clear goals for incorporation into the Auckland Plan.
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Cognition Institute Principal Consultant Nicola Meek says the momentum triggered by the Summit must be maintained.

“That is why COMET and the Cognition Institute are now setting up a leadership group - with representatives from across the city’s education, business, community and local government sectors - that will activate the discussion document recommendations. It will develop an education plan and identify activities that will deliver the quality education Aucklanders need, regardless of their current levels of achievement.

“The Summit’s deliberations coincide with Auckland Council’s development of the Auckland Plan, which will set the strategic direction for Auckland for the next 30 years.

“There is now an opportunity for the Council to harness the ideas and next stages of work arising from the Summit, and become a leading advocate for education in Auckland,” says Ms Meek.

COMET spokesperson Bernadine Vester says the absence of coherent and active connections between all levels of education in Auckland was also widely identified by Summit participants.

“The current lack of cohesion means, for example, that there is no mechanism for a widely shared understanding of the performance of Auckland’s education system. Participants agreed that current accountability mechanisms are inadequate, and that more people need to be engaged in performance setting and evaluation processes.

“Better evaluation would in turn lead to clear identification of education initiatives or programmes that are effective. Participants noted that better value could be obtained by scaling up programmes known and proven to work well, rather than investing in further pilot programmes that might not be sustainable.

“The key is to establish accurate mechanisms through which programmes can be measured – then realign funding,” says Ms Vester.

“Mediocrity is no longer acceptable. We need a success strategy, which extends beyond success in education to success in life, and an education sector that is equipped to drive improvements for everyone – from the lowest to the highest achieving student.”

To read the Auckland Education Summit Discussion Document, go to www.cognitioninstitute.org or www.comet.org.nz

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