Kerre Woodham: The post-Covid education collapse has halted

0:00Brenting a car always feels like a bit of a battle, but in the stuffy, slow-paced world of car rentals, Snap is an illegal song, so it's no surprise that Snap is the official car rental partner of the one New Zealand Warriors. When you rent with Snap, you're helping support the team that brings us all together, sweet-ass. For your next adventure, choose a car rental company that backs our boys. Visit snapbrentals.co.nz. Snap simply better car rental. You're listening to the Kerrywood Immorning's podcast from News Talks at B. Well I don't know what we're going to do. Good news. How on earth do you make a talkback show out of good news? That's not what we're here for. Indeed it is very good news though. The post-COVID collapse in education has halted, and the equity gap is narrowing as disadvantaged students improve at higher rates than their richer peers.

1:03That's according to New Zealand's 2025 PISA, Program for International Student Assessment Results, which is a benchmark for 15-year-olds in the OECD in Science, Maths and Reading. Oh yes, sure there are legitimate qualifiers. Results in other countries fail, so it was easier for us to catch up and look good. No, thank you media. We're not back to the 2009 levels, which is when our schools delivered truly world-class results and the pieces, but come on. This is fantastic news. The Minister for Education Eric Stanford believes, as indeed do I, as indeed do many of you, that your socio-economic circumstances should not dictate your academic achievement, that a world-class education should be available to every child in New Zealand, not just those who can afford private schools and tutoring. Education should be a way up, and it should be a way out for those who do not want to

2:09live the same lives as their parents. Understandably, Eric Stanford is very, very pleased with the results. To see these kids who are in the bottom quartile, who have gained in science a year and maths three terms and reading two terms or six months, that is beyond what we could have expected. And the reason I came to politics and to education was to close the equity gap, but it's been stubborn for decades, and this is the first time we've seen a turnaround. One of the things I put this down to is actually kids turning up to school. Oh, it's going to say, right, so just being at school helps. Well, if you look back to 2022 when we last did PISA, in term two, our attendance rate was about 39%, 39.6. In 2026, 20 in term two, 64.3, still a very long way to go. But when kids are turning up to school and our message has been over the last three years, every single day counts, this is what happens, and it matters the most for the kids at the bottom who need the education to change their lives.

3:09You cannot doubt the education minister's passion for who portfolio. You also cannot doubt the results that she is getting. I don't know what the teachers unions are going to do now. How can they complain because our kids are succeeding? And in large part it is thanks to very, very good teachers who were always motivated, who were always professional, but who had a dog of a curriculum under labour to deal with. I don't know what the principals said, oh, you can't test children. You know, these give a false result. No, they don't. They give an international benchmark. They let us know how we're doing compared to the rest of the world. For a very, very long time, we were world leaders. And for those of us who grew up with an education in the 70s and early 80s, I'm talking the 1970s and 1980s, not the 80s and 70s and the 80s, just for clarity,

4:14it was a world-class education. Ericka Stanford's been trying to ensure that no matter if you're in Fungare or you're at school and bluff, the core subjects will be the same. There will be localised differences, there will be regional differences, but the basics, the standard stuff will be the same and that's as it was. We turned out world-class scientists from tiny country schools because we had a great curriculum and brilliant teachers. We've always had good teachers, but they've been dealing with absolute, politically motivated, ideologically unsound, curricular over the last couple of decades. All parents want is their children to achieve their potential. To have a chance to succeed, I went to school in Pukakuya, Tokoroa, Tudangi and Y-He, and I could foot it with anybody from around the world, education-wise.

5:21You were allowed to explore what you wanted to explore. I wanted to learn French for human sake when I was in Tudangi. I found an old old French dictionary, and French was it offered at Tudangi primary, but a teacher found another teacher within the school that was willing to sit with me. Show me it wasn't just words, it was sounds that made another language. The number of parents I spoke to could see their children going backwards, underlaiders, curriculum, the money that was spent on that, the people who were employed to come up with all sorts of add-ons and instead of understanding that the basics have to be there and then the children will find the add-ons. If they know the basics, they can go exploring all by themselves. And the number of you who rang me having to find money you simply did not have

6:23to pay for extra tuition because you could see your kids were failing, you could see your kids were falling behind, you didn't want them to be left behind so you did it. You got them educated when it is the responsibility of state schools to do that. I couldn't, like I've seen a difference with the Grandkids, huge difference. It's so important. If you, and this used to be the way out for migrant families since forever ago, it used to be the way out for children who'd had to leave school at 12 or 13, who slogged away, made a life, but then wanted more for their own kids, wanted more choices for their own children. Education was it. I would love to hear from you on this, especially if you are somebody who's seen the difference

7:24in your home, especially if you're somebody who was having to find that money for the extra tuition because you were not going to let your kids down. The government might have been letting the kids down, but you weren't going to let your own children down. And employers, I want to know if you were starting to see the first signs of a truly educated workforce. For more from Kerrywood and Mornings, listen live to News Talks It Be from 9 AM weekdays or follow the podcast on I Heart Radio. This is Steve Kovino from Kovino and Rich. Quick trivia fellas, every guy listening is contestant. Answer honestly to yourself. You got a belly in a little chest, gassed by the afternoon, no drive left in the tank, you lack that confidence and mental edge. Those are classic signs that your testosterone has been sliding and nothing drags it down faster than extra weight. So why not take matters into your own hands? Shrup off the weight that tanks your testosterone with Bioma, GLP1 booster. Every serving is packed with science, packed ingredients that crank up your natural GLP1 production.

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