Plan to abolish streaming from NZ schools by 2030 launched

Tainui Pompey excelled until he reached mainstream high school when assumptions were made about his South Auckland upbringing and he was relegated to the “cabbage class”.

Now the 29-year-old is part of a team at Ngāi Tahu’s Tokona te Raki that has created a Ministry of Education-funded plan – Kōkirihia – to remove streaming from schools by 2030.

Launched today in collaboration with educators around the country, the hope is that by 2024 all schools will have engaged with their communities, boards and students about ending streaming.

Many schools have already veered away from the practice, like Christchurch Girls’ High School, and Horowhenua and Onslow colleges, but New Zealand has one of the highest rates of ability grouping in the OECD, second only to Ireland.

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Tokona te Raki project lead Piripi Prendergast said the plan was a welcome catalyst for change to a systemic issue that stopped students reaching their full potential but was so ingrained in teaching it was “invisible and widely accepted”.

The plan was designed to raise awareness, showcase alternatives, and outline actions key education agencies had committed to, to ensure streaming was abolished from schools by 2030.

For example, the Education Review Office has committed to publishing a good practice report on schools that have “de-streamed”.

Dr Hana O’Regan, Mātauranga Iwi Chairs Group lead technician and CEO CORE Education Tātai Aho Rau, said negative impacts of streaming were widespread among all demographics, but research showed it was particularly damaging for Māori and Pacific children, resulting in an education system with huge disparities and inequities.

They were more likely to be incorrectly placed in bottom groups and classes, damaging self-esteem and confidence and limiting career pathways.

Schooling involved “age-old stereotypes of Māori as being ‘good at sport, music, and dance’ or ‘kinaesthetic learners’” – good with their hands but not their minds, she said.

A report outlined the timeline of streaming that included the Director of Education saying in 1931: “Education should lead the Māori lad to be a good farmer and the Māori girl to be a good farmer’s wife.”

“The lineage of streaming is clearly linked to notions of race and class, and the associated early bias and prejudice that sought to create privileged access and opportunities for some groups, while relegating others to lower paid jobs and status in our society,” it says.

Streaming “inhibits student choice, social cohesion, success, and actualisation of student potential to be confident citizens”.

NZEI and the PPTA, in conjunction with Canterbury and Auckland universities, surveyed primary and secondary schools to find out how many stream, the types of streaming in use, and attitudes towards the practice.

It found nearly 70% of primary teachers used at least some form of streaming, and more than 66% of secondary teachers. More than 47% of teachers, and 55% of school leaders agreed that streaming reinforced socio-economic and ethnic inequalities in education.

When students are taught in mixed but flexible achievement groups, and have teachers who expect all students to make large gains, they often surpass even their teachers’ high expectations, the report says.

While the ministry’s policy was that schools should not stream, it was limited in its ability to stop it since schools had autonomy in how they presented its curriculum.

In October 2022, the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) unanimously passed a policy at its national conference – Ending Streaming in Aotearoa – which advocates strongly for its removal and for ensuring appropriate resourcing is available to enable a successful shift.

Kōkirihia says teachers need leadership, professional development support and time to move into alternative ways of teaching like high expectation teaching, reciprocal teaching, and Developing Mathematical Inquiry in Communities.

Green Bay Primary School teacher Anja Hennig said she “felt the chains had gone” as soon as she took up high expectation teaching with academically strong students sitting next to those less so.

“When you get it right, the classroom just hums, it just flows.”

Tokona te Raki executive director Dr Eruera Tarena hoped the nation was moving towards a fair and equitable education system in time for the 200-year anniversary of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

“Whether or not we realise it, or want to acknowledge it, streaming is yet another example of the systemic racism that is alive and well in so many sectors of our society.”

Pompey excelled at kohanga reo then kura kaupapa in South Auckland, before finding himself tied up in the streaming of mainstream high schools.

Moving to New Plymouth secondary schools, “They just made this assumption about me as one of those brown boys from South Auckland.”

He was lumped into what was commonly referred to as the “cabbage class” along with other brown students expected to be into “rugby, league or gangs”, which also brought bullying from other students.

After several alternative education courses, he decided to “get on my knees” to beg for a place back at school.

His experience of school veered him away from traditional tertiary education, so he joined the military then “thrived” when he became a highly sought-after industrial electrician.

Now with a son of his own, he was proud to be a researcher involved in ensuring tamariki of all backgrounds won’t be subject to streaming at school in future.