Education investment.

The former Carpenter government was frequently accused of not investing enough in state education. About three weeks back, the new liberal government started looking at raising teachers' pay. It's a good start, and raising teachers' pay is 'investing in education', but that's insufficient.

Every day I meet kids who don't engage in school. Will a pay rise suddenly create a better crop of teachers? I doubt it. Simple fact: for many kids, school sucks. They don't engage in school because they're not interested in school.

The girlfriend commented yesterday that some kids should be allowed to 'do their own thing' and explore areas that interest them because normal education holds them back. That's a brilliant idea and some schools do that. Problem is, those schools are "alternative education" schools with limited post-school pathways. "Mainstream education" on the other hand doesn't allow much leeway to 'do their own thing'. Sure there's electives and structured workplace learning, but based on the number of disengaged kids I see, that's not enough.

Interest improves engagement, which will improve achievement. Higher achievement will have knock-on effects for discipline, self esteem, and achievement in other subjects. It's pure common sense. I'm not talking about completely revamping the academic programme, I'm saying maybe an hour or two a week.

If the state wants to invest in education, then give schools the money and the leeway to let students 'do their own thing' within that school environment.