vaughan couillault

After-effects of Covid-19 pandemic school decisions are being blamed for dropping NCEA results.  

Provisional results indicate pass rates dropped for a third consecutive year. 

Almost 50,000 students had accessed their results by late yesterday evening. 

Secondary Principals' Association President Vaughan Couillault told Tim Dower that it's not entirely unexpected given the gaps in knowledge teachers have uncovered since Covid. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

St Cuthbert’s College is ditching Level 1 NCEA next year, finding the proposed changes to the curriculum concerning.

President of the Secondary Principals Association Vaughan Couillault disagrees with criticisms that the new curriculum will leave children unprepared.

He says that the point was to lower the stakes of Level 1, and align it more with the amount of work needed in Levels 2 and 3.

Couillault says that the base curriculum being changed does not stop schools from teaching other content, and the removal of standards actually gives more space for that kind of learning to be done.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are children acquiring the practical skills they need to navigate “adult life”?

On top of a traditional education, should schools be teaching children how to do things like open bank accounts, taxes, or the basics of our political system?

Secondary Principals Association President Vaughan Couillault says that while they aren’t packaged as a “life skills course”, these skills are covered in subjects such as social studies, maths, and technologies.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A lukewarm response to the Government's crackdown on truancy.

82 new attendance officer roles are being created to help address dwindling school attendance in a 74-million dollar package.

Their job will be to work with students with high absenteeism, and around three-thousand kids are expected to benefit.

Secondary Principals' Association President, Vaughan Couillault told Kate Hawkesby that anything is better than nothing, but with two thousand-seven-hundred schools, the numbers aren't huge.

He says he acknowledges the financial times we're in, and even two officers are better than none.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.