Auckland City leads NZ with focus on children and learning

Media statement

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Auckland City leads NZ with focus on children and learning

The Draft Auckland Plan’s focus on children and learning has been welcomed as smart and innovative by the leader of an independent education think tank.

“With one critical act, Auckland’s leaders have become the cheerleaders of children and of learning,” according to the Cognition’s Institute’s Principal Consultant, Nicola Meek.

“Auckland’s city leaders have declared that the smartest way to transform Auckland is to value learning. It’s the first time in living memory that a Council has made children and education a city priority.

“It has confirmed to everyone the importance of learning for families, communities, the environment, and our place in the world,” Ms Meek said.

She said that the impact of parents and teachers on children had barely registered on local government’s radar until now.

“Councils have long ignored the fact that parents and schools teach future local citizens.

“Our education sector is too fragmented, and too much of a lottery, often linked to where children live. Auckland Council has raised the stakes for all children.

“The Auckland Council is ready to model the sort of innovation it is asking from others – setting ambitious goals, working smarter, and being better co-ordinated.”

Leaders at the Auckland Education Summit the Cognition Institute convened recently were adamant that better connections and more collaboration between education and other sectors were vital.

“Education leaders at the Summit saw that the Council must be ambitious for all our children, and make sure they can access whatever the city can provide to make them successful,“ Ms Meek said.

The Institute is working with Summit leaders to help frame education’s contribution to Council’s goals.

Ends

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