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2 responses to “Good to see Literacy & Numeracy included in the latest Tertiary Education Strategy”

1. 

   Damon Whitten

   March 5, 2014

   Anything else would have been a great loss.

   The first, third and forth are all intertwined tightly. For example, my current class is 80% Maori and requires Step six numeracy skills to be able to develop the trade skills and enter the target vocation (engineering). There is no way these guys will complete the programme and develop the skills unless they develop a whole lot of numeracy skills really fast (And they will). But if you removed anyone of these it would be like removing a taha.

   As to strengthening research-based institutions the writing was on the wall. I recommend every organisation I work with to get going with this. PTE’s for example do not realise how well positioned they are to generate great research. Whether it be action research or full on quantitative research they should be aggressively pursuing this and feeding it back into their practice and advertising it like crazy.

   Half the problem is the skills shortage and funding of course.

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2. 

   Graeme Smith

   March 6, 2014

   Hi Damon… Thanks, yes… I concur.

   Although, it’s hard for PTEs to do the least that they need to do let alone do something like action or quantitative research. Most PTE tutors and managers don’t have enough time to deal with the demands of everyday teaching, administration, and related compliance. So this goes to funding and lack of skilled people to do this kind of work as you’ve highlighted.

   I’m not sure that there’s a good solution to this either. The current drive is to greater efficiencies. This means that providers will be looking for ways to cut costs. Big costs for PTEs are of course staff salaries and buildings.

   One possible way forward would be for tertiary institutions to partner with bigger organisations who can sponsor some of the infrastructure, e.g. provide a building and IT support.

   Another solution is for industry to step up and take on this role, perhaps like the Google Campus in the US. Unfortunately, here in the NZ our whole country is the size of a small town globally speaking.

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