In an article entitled “NZ ‘failing kids who struggle to learn,’” Lane Nichols of the Dominion Post reported about a critical evaluation of New Zealand schooling. It seems that NZ schools have been failing to address the problems of students with Learning Disabilities and some parents of those students have complained. Shades of Eli Tash in Milwaukee (WI, US) in the 1960s!
The Education Ministry has conceded that it lags behind some countries for dyslexia, as the learning difficulty was only officially recognised last year.
Professor David Reynolds said New Zealand had little or no screening system to pick up dyslexia, physical movement problems or attention deficit disorder among children, and lacked programmes and resources to address their special needs in schools.
Without parents lobbying decision-makers to do more, New Zealand was in danger of losing its economic competitiveness as thousands of children with learning problems slipped through the cracks, he said.
“Probably most countries are doing more than you. We assume that 10 to 12 per cent of the child population have some form of learning impairment.
I wonder to what extent the Reading Recovery movement affects early literacy instruction in NZ. If it was in the version of RR that is popular in the US, one might wonder whether this might contribute to the absence of strong efforts to promote effective early literacy instruction for students who show signs of problems.
Link to Mr. Nichols’ article.
There’s a Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand. At the outset they were in the Ron Davis camp (”dyslexics think in pictures”) but they now seem to have broadened their view.
Davis Dyslexia & the discredited Irlen approach are both mentioned.
http://www.dyslexiafoundation.org.nz/info.html
The NZ education authority seem to be taking a more rational approach as well
http://www.teamup.co.nz/primary-int/helpful/Dyslexia/Getting+support.htm
I have to agree with you about the RR. We went through a phase here where it was in vogue- and as quickly as it came, it went. Since it was created by a Kiwi, I imagine it has indeed influenced their approach to intervention.
Having said that, I do wonder how close to MS Clay’s work we actually got with a sort of “cascade” model of training in effect. (I’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on and so on….)
Thought you might be interested in this post from my Health Business Blog: http://www.healthbusinessblog.com/?p=1601
The Dominion article really doesn’t reflect the situation in New Zealand - although well behind the rest of the world at the start of 2006, huge progress has been made.
In April the Ministry of Education officially recognised Dyslexia - previously they avoided the term and focussed on needs not labels. This did not serve dyslexic students well as their needs competed with often greater needs of others and thus funding and action was often absent.
Since April, the Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand has been working with the Ministry and as a consequence a number of significant milestones have been acheived.
Details at http://www.dyslexiafoundation.org.nz/news_dec.html
The NZ education system is in the process of a significant shift and the approach to providing learning opportunities and support for dyslexic students is in sync with this.
The Dominion article would have been more appropriately printed in 2005 - it does not reflect the situation accurately at all.
Hope this clarification helps.
Guy Pope-Mayell
Trustee
Dyslexia Foundation