Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
The modern New Zealand Educational System is composed of many different types of schools. Successive New Zealand Governments have pursued a policy of inegrating private schools into the state system. There are now a wide variety of state schools reflecting different areas, religions, and gender policy. The state has pledged to retain the distinctive nature of the Catholic and other private schools integrated into the state system. As a result of the Governments integration policy, New Zealand has a relatively small private sector. Parental concerns over standards in the state sector mean that many parents continue to opt for an independent education. Many different types of private schools, however, have been integrated into the state sector.
The variety inherent in the integrated schools offer not only a wider range of teaching methods, but also a diversity of cultural and religious outlook to accomodate the desires of New Zealand parents and students who by the intermediate level begin to form opinions of their own about their education.
Within the New Zealand state school system there is provision for children's individual learning styles and room for different philosophies of education. Some schools
develop programmes with a strong focus on particular interests of the children and others work in a more formal, structured style. While each state integrated school
has its own special character, other state schools also offer choices for parents. In some areas schools offer Maori medium education, in some, Montessori or other
programmes are offered. The variety available means that parents may wish to visit several schools before making a choice about the preferred one for their children.
The integrated schools provide a wide range of educational opportunities to parenra and students who want various cultural and religious philosophies to be a part of their education. Maori students can learn in the Maori language. Catholic students can attend schools with a religious component. The fact that these schools are integrated into the state system means that students whose parents could not afford private schools have access to the cultural and religious learming opportunities desired.
A wide variety of different types of schools have been integrated into the state system.
The Catholic Church has established parochial schools in almost all European countries and their former colonies. The development of the schools was generally different in catholic and protestant countries. Catholic countries have generally looked on the catholic schools as an important part of the country's education system and provided state funds. Protestant countries, on the other hand, often looked on the catholic schools with suspicion. Some refused to provide any state funds to support the schools. The New Zealand parochial schools faced severe financial problems. The declining numbers of priests and nuns meant that the church have had to recruit lay teachers at considerably higher wages. Many schools had to close or amalgamate. As a result, the Catlolic schools in 1978-84 chose to integrate into the state system.
Several traditional private schools organized like British preparatory or public schools have integrated into the sate sector. Many private schools were adversely affected by the economic down-turn of the 1980s and fewer parents could afford expensive fees. Hardest hit were the boarding schools in the rural areas. Boarding has declined in popularity during recent years. Many pricate schools in urban areas could replace boarders with day pupils, hoewever, those located in rural areas found this much more difficult.
The school is one of over six hundred Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf schools world-wide and offers an alternative to both the usual education available in state schools and the relatively unstructured style of many other options. The underlying philosophy is based on the principle that education should support the development of the child in its physical, soul and spiritual growth towards a becoming a free and responsible adult. Rudolf Steiner argued that this growth occurs in three main stages covering the years from 0 to 21. The first stage he characterised as a period when the will activity is dominant, during the second the life of feeling is developing and in the third cognitive activity comes to the fore. On this basis a curriculum is built which gives the opportunity for these three
periods of growth to be facilitated. The educational movement based on Steiner's ideas is sometimes referred to as Waldorf Education, after the first such school established in
1919 by an industrialist for the children of the workers in his factory (the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory) in Germany. The place of the human being in relation to the whole environment, how this evolves over time and the responsibility that we all have for that
relationship is fundamental to the whole of this education. A major goal is to develop the artistic, practical and scientific sides of all students, enabling them to become balanced and integrated adults, able to unfold their unique talents and skills in ways that are based in individual initiative and at the same time are socially responsible. The Rudolf Steiner schools found integration to be an attractive option. Unlike the traditional private schools, many of the Rudolf Steiner schoolds, did not attract the number of affluent families that could support modern facilities and adequately pay teachers.
