The main education policy of the E-Party is a proposal for an individual development focused education system a draft of which is detailed here.

Main points:

• Schools become "Human Development Centres"
• Teachers become "facilitators", "assessors" or "monitors" depending on their role

The traditional education system is based on teachers knowing more than the pupils that they teach. Given the rapid rate of social development, computers and media, children are learning skills and knowledge that their parents never had to learn, and the current parental generation cannot expect to know more than the generation that follows them. In addition to that, with the breakdown of families and weakening of religious training, schools are being lumped increasingly with developmental problems caused by events that originate in the home. Rather than a problem this should be seen as an opportunity for creating schools that equip children better for the different society they are likely to experience as a result of this change continuing into the future. The Individual development system focuses on the individual learning experience of each pupil rather than the uniform delivery of curriculum subjects by teachers. Children are given optimum opportunity to find out things for themselves under the facilitation of professionals who are responsible for guiding their development. They may find out things through a variety of means including:

• knowledge delivered by the teacher in the conventional classroom manner.
• skills gained by doing self-directed projects prepared by trained instructors and assessed by professionals.
• information gained through internet, TV, library.
• skills gained through games, interactive sessions, workshops, sports, cultural events and vocational training.

The places, traditionally called schools, which oversee the bulk of the development of our youth are in the unique position of having the greatest concentration of human development expertise in the community. Parents are not necessarily experts on human development and their support systems and resources in terms of time and money are usually inferior to what is possible at schools. The school has the opportunity to lead the way in the community, in providing for the development of the child into an adult. This process is already happening with schools finding themselves having to provide solutions to problems that originate at home, and providing their pupils with considerable guidance and lifeskills.

It is appropriate now to focus on the development of pupils as whole human beings so that it is given equal priority as the academic curriculum. Intellectual development is important, but it is only one part of human development. Under this new focus more resources would be put into delivering strategies for dealing with all aspects of development including emotional, social, physiological and cognitive. Under this focus, children whose learning abilities vary markedly from the class average or whose social situation is having a negative effect on their learning potential would have greater chance of success. Those with strong social and emotional skills would continue to be able to achieve to the fullest of their ability.

The school would become a focus in the community, for parents and children alike, on human development.

Under this system, some teachers, rather than simply being there to teach a subject would be there to facilitate the development of children into adults and to alert relevant parties if something goes awry. At the end of the day it is how the pupils turn out as adults and the overall contribution they make to society that is important, not their specific academic or sporting achievements at school. Their development has to happen successfully. School graduates need to have social skills, self-esteem, confidence, and emotional fitness in order to function successfully in society. Poor human development leads to psychological disorder, crime, business failure etc, all of which, besides being expensive for society, lead to reduced enjoyment of life. We need to have highly performing scientists, sports and business people, performing artists etc, but we also need them to be emotionally balanced. School graduates are faced with an increasingly complex world to which they have to develop the skills to cope and schools have to become more complex in order to reflect that.

Individual difference and individual choice

Everyone develops at a different rate and in different ways. Instead of all pupils working through a narrow range of subjects at the same pace each year, the school curriculum should allow pupils to work through a range of subjects suited to them, and at a pace suited to them. In this way pupils will have a greater likelihood of being able to achieve what they set out to do, high achievers will be able to go on and seek their full potential, and low achievers will be presented with goals which are realistic for them and which cement their interest in the education system.

Increasing decision making

As pupils progress through towards Year 13 they will be increasingly required to make decisions from the wide range of choice of subjects they can take and at what level. Making decisions, and learning self-determination contribute to increased responsibility and better-adjusted adulthood.

Focus on Strengths

The system is based on finding a pupil's strengths and supporting them. Much potential has been lost by pupils sitting through hours and hours of lessons in subjects that are of little interest and with which they are unskilled; not to mention the teaching time wasted. If a pupil's strengths are successfully identified and supported by teachers, then there is an incentive for them to attend school rather than play truant. Although weaknesses should not be ignored, emphasizing them too much can lead to reduced desire to participate. Not every child is capable of rising to a challenge. Identifying strengths needs to be balanced up with what are considered the minimum requirements to function in society, and every person will have some area in which they have to overcome obstacles in order to achieve. It is important that areas of achievement and high self-esteem outweigh areas that pupils find challenging.

Achievement Based

All pupils should be able to achieve. Once they have worked out their learning styles and strengths, then they should be encouraged to select subjects that they respond to well, enabling them to achieve at whatever they choose to do. If the school is unable to supply what the pupil needs then they need to look outside the school at other learning institutions, the internet or at vocational training.

Unconditional Positive Regard

In order for all pupils to achieve, staff must treat them at all times with Unconditional Positive Regard. There should be no labeling of pupils by staff and all should be recognised to have the potential to achieve something positive with their lives, whether that can be identified or not. No member of staff has the right to assume that any pupil is a non-achiever or is incapable of doing well in society. To do so impacts on their self-esteem, self-image and in the way they respond to the school environment. The attitude that staff have on pupils has a marked influence on how they behave towards society as they go into adulthood. Teacher attitude can make or break a developing child. They should have a completely professional attitude of respect and support towards all pupils regardless of race, culture, disability, personality, or even behaviour.

Mixing of age levels

At present, not everyone of a particular age at high school takes the same level of any given subject. Most schools provide accelerated classes for high achievers and catch-up classes for lower achievers. Now that subject matter has been modularized as it is with NCEA, the opportunity for providing subjects to meet degree of skill, rather than given age-level is increased. Secondary Schools could operate more like tertiary institutions. In Year 9 the bulk of pupils would be at the same level but with increasing age, and widening of skill differences, the mixing of age levels would be likely to increase. As the mixing of age levels becomes more pronounced towards Year 13, it is going to reflect the complexity of the real world more, and pupils will be better disposed to making the kinds of decisions required in tertiary education and getting into the workforce. High achievers can excel, low achievers can retain their interest in their education.

Pupils at the higher and lower levels of achievement will benefit the most from this system. High academic achievers can go ahead unshackled. In all subject levels at Year 11 and above traditional quantative marking systems can be re-introduced. No one at this level or above should be taking a subject that they are not able to achieve in. At the same time, they are expected to be exposed to minimum levels of human development skills so that they have the opportunity to develop into balanced individuals. School Monitors ensure that high academic achievers are developing social and sporting skills, and that sport and cultural achievers have the minimum academic achievements. Low academic achievers would seldom have to sit an assessment they are not capable of passing if they are well monitored and pace themselves well. They would learn their limitations without having to repeatedly be faced with the words 'not achieved', however they would be expected to be able to pass minimum standards of literacy, numeracy and scientific knowledge. It is envisioned that peer pressure will keep most pupils at about the same level as can be expected in any demographic sampling as represented by a Bell curve, in which only a minority buck the trend and the majority sit in the middle.

Facilitators, Assessors and Monitors

Instead of teachers the school will have:

Facilitators who take classes and deliver specific subject material using a range of learning methods at their disposal, making sure that each pupil receives the information they are required in order to achieve the subject matter. These professionals will be trained much the same way that they are now except they will focus not on the material they have to teach but on how to best enable their pupils to learn it. They will work with monitors to ensure that individuals are achieving.

Assessors who mark tests that pupils undertake in order to demonstrate their achievement of the subject material. Assessors are likely to be facilitators as well, but in big schools it may be a full time job for some. As with the pupils, all staff aren't good at everything, some will be better facilitators, and some will be better assessors. In the current NCEA system assessors need to be closely moderated to ensure that standards remain similar throughout the country. Current problesms of lack of inter-school  reliability in standard assessment could be overcome if some members of staff were dedicated assessors and had responsibilities outside the school as members of inter-school moderation panels in different subjects (which could operate over the internet).

Monitors who look after the individual development of each pupil. These people play a crucial role, giving the institution its developmental flavour. They are there to ensure that each pupil in their charge is:

• Conversant with their learning style and any learning disabilities such as dyslexia identified and suitable expertise introduced to deal with it. Fully occupied, ie has a full timetable.
  
• Challenged, ie their courses are at a level which offers them some degree of effort.
  
• Attending classes and not roaming the streets.
  
• Achieving subjects and not failing. If a pupil is failing, then either they need some special attention or find other subjects to take.
  
• Not being unduly affected by events at home or in the school. Monitors have the responsibility of detecting when social factors are impacting on the child's development. They maintain contact with the school counsellor and social services, and can refer cases to them quickly when the need arises.
  

Monitors would need to be human development specialists of some sort, having suitable qualifications or skills, experience or attributes, and are likely to be delivering programmes in the human development part of the curriculum. The monitor replaces the form teacher and liaises with subject facilitators over individual pupil requirements.

The Individual development School is likely to have four main areas:

1. Academic subjects: English, Maths, Science, Geography, Languages etc
2. Sport and Cultural/performing arts
3. Transition, and vocational guidance, including on the job training
4. Human Development, including learning how to learn, emotional fitness, health, adolescence, sexuality, drugs, mood management etc.

Academic Subjects

As in the current NCEA system, pupils can achieve modules of learning. They learn from early on to make decisions as to what subjects to choose. Facilitators deliver the subject by whatever means is most effective for the pupils and assessors measure their ability. With the increasing availability of information in all forms of media, the traditional role of teachers as sources of information is diminishing rapidly. The new focus on facilitators rather than teachers should produce professionals who are more orientated towards optimizing the absorption of information by their pupils from whatever source they might be getting it. There will be a human development focus, with facilitators focusing on their pupils' learning.

Minimum Requirements: Pupils have a wide range of choice for what and how much they do but there should remain minimum requirements for academic achievement in English, Maths and science, so that pupils are literate, have the minimum required to get a job and fill out forms, and have some understanding of the physical world.

Sport and Cultural

These should be a paid part of the curriculum for the staff. In light of that, standards of delivery of these components need to be improved to ensure that pupils learn to carry out these activities in a way that best benefits their fitness, health and enjoyment of life. Given the importance of these activities to employability, either as careers in themselves or by improving general skills in other areas, pupils should be given constructive and helpful feedback on their abilities and assessed using standardized systems.

Vocational Guidance

Especially for those with practical rather than academic skills, opportunities to learn vocational skills are essential. It is better to attend school to learn a hands-on job than to fail at academic subjects. Those pupils with limited chance of achieving in academic subjects should be given the opportunity to explore practical vocational skills as is possible currently in most schools. In year 12 and above it should be possible to work part-time and attend school part time.

Human development

About a fifth of the curriculum should be directly related to pupils increasing their understanding of their own development. This includes:

Learning their own individual way of learning
Adolescent development, emotional fitness, sexuality, drugs, mood management
Relationships, society, values, laws
Diet, health, physical fitness, personal hygiene
Individual monitoring, and making pupils aware of counseling services, social agencies, Youthline, DARE etc. 

Many of these subjects can be covered through facilitated sessions and workshops and some tested using pen and paper tests.

Learning How to Learn:

Everyone has a different way in which they learn things. It is important for a school to help pupils to find the best learning style for them and create the environment in which to best tap into the pupil's individual learning style. It is fruitless throwing a whole lot of learning requirements at someone if they are not tuned into receiving and knowing what to do with it. The traditional classroom situation consisting of a teacher in front of a classroom of pupils sitting at desks facing the teacher in rows is only one of many methods of institutionalized learning. In many respects it is very two dimensional and if pupils are expected to be in this kind of environment all the time, then it can become quite stultifying, their posture suffers and concentration and learning falls. In the process of discovering how they learn best, pupils need to be exposed to a variety of study and research methods and environments. Learning is a self-reinforcing process. For some it will only happen if they are allowed to explore for themselves, without the facilitator necessarily understanding what they are doing. It is better for this exploration to happen in the classroom situation rather than on the streets.

Adolescent development, emotional fitness, sexuality, drugs, mood management:

These would consist of facilitated programmes including information about human physiological changes, how emotions work and how to deal with them. Simple assessments can be used to monitor a pupil's emotional development and intervention can be made if necessary, perhaps contributing to the prevention of suicide or other acting out behaviours.

Relationships, society, values, laws:

Here, pupils would have the opportunity to discuss current affairs, individual values and social values, laws, conflict and negotiation, dating, anything to do with social interaction. Everything they cover here will be relevant to their current development at and outside school. Diet, health, physical fitness, personal hygiene These courses would cover physical care of the body, from what we put into it to what we get out of it. This could have some connection with the sport part of the curriculum as it does now.

Monitoring and counseling services, co-operation with social agencies:

Each pupil in the school would be individually monitored for their human development using a standard set of indexes. School monitors would determine whether or not intervention is required in individual cases, and how best to conduct it. The school counselor would be available to talk with pupils when requested. Human development courses for pupils and parents alike would be promoted at the school office and in publications. Programmes for the pupils might be run by the school or by some social institution such as Youthline. Programmes for parents are most likely to be run by community institutions such as Parentline or other agencies. Some pupils may require a lot of attention from staff in the human development department, have their study disrupted, and use up considerable school resources. Schools will have to become expert at determining when to bring in other agencies such as CYPFS, the courts, and special needs providers.

Schools have a responsibility over the child only, not the family. There should be a clear boundary, and schools cannot intervene in the way parents rear their children. However every child has the right to a safe upbringing, basic literacy and numeracy skills and ample opportunity for development. The school should support these rights. In situations where it appears that the family situation is leading to a violation of these rights, then the child needs to feel that the school is a safe place to go. It is better that the child be doing very little in a controlled environment at the school rather than roaming the streets getting into trouble. Schools can provide this environment for pupils without intervening in any family situations. All they have to do is to provide the physical and emotional space, empathy, some activities, such as a few subject modules, and counseling if need be. If schools do not provide this service then the child will express their life situation through taking drugs, crime and wagging classes, and before long be suspended or expelled. From there the child moves from the education to the justice system and develops in a manner that is anti-social and expensive to society. The character of the human development department will vary from school to school dependent on different communities' ways of dealing with human development, but there should be some guidelines to encourage aculturality, and objectivity, and regular auditing as in other school departments. There will be some individuals whom schools cannot deal with who may need to be referred to other institutions, but it should be possible to cater for the bulk of pupils.

Monitors

Pupil monitors are likely to be the most important new innovation in the human development focused school system. These people are the human development specialists with skills and knowledge in dealing with child development. Success of the system depends largely on the conduct of these professionals. There is likely to be a strong presence of psychology training, understanding of children, and tolerance. Monitors will be required to follow guidelines which prevent them from: interfering with parenting undue influence over pupil decisions Monitors are not likely to undertake much facilitation or assessing in conventional school subjects. They are likely to be based in the human development part of the school delivering sessions in emotional fitness, adolescent development etc. A monitor might be in charge of 100-200 pupils, and be present in a study class with 25 of them at a time once a week. During that class time the monitor has a chance to observe them and talk with them individually. The rest of the time, the monitor only deals with their school progress as recorded in the computer system by other staff. The monitor has a set amount of time rostered each week for one to one sessions with individual pupils as required. Pupils may arrange to make appointments with their monitor, or the monitor may be motivated by something in the school record or their own observations to make an appointment. Some pupils may not need to see their monitor at all, but the monitor will be fully aware of how they are progressing.

Redistribution of Staff Resources

It is expected that a redistribution of resources into the human development part of the curriculum will mean that a lot of person hours previously spent trying to instruct pupils who are not going to achieve in other areas, will be spent on facilitating their development into areas in which they will achieve. This should mean that the new system will not require any more staff than the old system, although they will need to have a different focus and some will need to be trained differently than they are now. Because pupils will be applied to tasks that fit them better, discipline problems with youth in general are expected to decrease.

School Timetable

The Individual Development System will require complex time-tabling arrangements, because of the wide range of choice and the opportunity for some pupils to move forward or backward in level. Computer technology enables software to be written to produce time-tables that optimize the level of choice, and enable the system to work. Not everyone will be able to do everything that they want to, but the scope will be increased enough to make it worthwhile. Some subjects might be accessed via the internet or through a similar technological link-up with a virtual class-room.

While it is sometimes necessary to exclude certain individuals from the mainstream education system, it must be considered that expelled pupils need to have somewhere to go otherwise, they may drift into a life of crime.

It has been suggested that expulsion should not be the decision solely of the school and that a magistrate or at least panel of JPs should be involved. In addition, if another school cannot be found, then pupils younger than the leaving age should be made wards of the state and sent to a specially established boarding school for maladjusted youth. Such a system may work as an incentive to pupils and parents alike to establish and maintain socially acceptable behaviour and act as a preventative to unwanted children slipping into a life of crime unnoticed.