1、The Culture And Education Of New Zealand教师教育学院-10021430-李倩倩When we refer to New Zealand, its culture and education are two 1indispensable topics.As is well known to us, New Zealand is a typical immigration country, which has large numbers of immigrants coming from the Pacific countries in the neighb
2、orhood, as well as Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and other parts of the world. Consequently, with the increasing level of immigration and globalization, New Zealand is becoming a more and more multicultural society.Believe it or not, New Zealand enjoys advantageous social welfare, whose more than t
3、wo thirds lands are national parks and reserves. And income support is offered to people with unemployment, illness, disability, single parents and senior citizen. Besides, New Zealand owns developed economy reputed for top-quality fruit, meat and dairy products. Service industries, particularly tho
4、se relating to tourism and education, are also of great significance to its economy. Every year many Chinese tourists and students come to New Zealand to enjoy what it can offer. And New Zealand is a democratic society. It is different from most countries. The permanent residents of New Zealand have
5、 the right to vote. Moreover, New Zealanders lead an easygoing, relaxed lifestyle. It seems that joie de vivre is well engrained in its national psyche. Rather than falling victim to the busy tempo of modern life as in other developed countries, they have stood their ground retaining all that is old
6、 and natural. They enjoy peace in solitude and hate the hustle and bustle of modern life.On the other hand, it is widely acknowledged that the New Zealand education system is one of the best education systems in the world. Education in New Zealand follows the three-tier model which includes primary
7、schools, followed by high or secondary schools and tertiary education at universities and/or polytechs. And Education is free and compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16, although in very special cases an exemption can be gained after applying to the Ministry Of Education (MOE). These may be granted
8、 to students who are close to 16, have been experiencing some ongoing difficulty at school and have a job already lined up. Families wishing to home educate their children can apply for exemption. To get an exemption from enrollment at a registered school, they must satisfy the Secretary of Educatio
9、n that their child will be taught “as regularly and as well as in a registered school“. Children almost always start school on their 5th birthday, or the first School Day after it. Post-compulsory education is regulated within the New Zealand National Qualifications Framework, a unified system of na
10、tional qualifications in schools, vocational education and training. Besides, there are 8 universities, and they are all state-universities, and the biggest one is the University Of Auckland with 25,000 students, was founded 1882. To our surprise, every town with a population over 20,000 has at leas
11、t one polytechnic/institute of technology campus. And in order to guarantee citizens receive higher education of equal rights and help the students of poor economy conditions to finish school, New Zealand government carried out the “student loan programs“ in 1992 providing the loan to the university
12、 students who couldnt afford to school fee. And according to New Zealand law, it is unnecessary for them to take loan problems into consideration if they couldnt find a job after graduation. In terms of what I am interested in education of New Zealand, I 2think it is their student- oriented educatio
13、nal concept. For example, the length of schooling in New Zealand is flexible. You can choose what you like as your major, and you are allowed to graduate in advance if you are good at study while you may delay graduation if you dont learn it very well. And those who have anticipated jobs or dropped
14、out of the school can choose to go back to school to learn as well. Additionally, teachers in New Zealand pay more attention to students longitudinal comparison with themselves, and respect the students self development-oriented evaluation and individual differences to make the students build up the
15、 confidence. And the primary and middle school students have no subject competition, comparison between class or school activities with each other. Most secondary school teachers take students comments and final grade into the envelope, students have the right to keep it and decide whether to give p
16、arents see transcript. Meanwhile, universities of New Zealand pay full attention to the cultivation of the students creativity, they acquire knowledgeable mainly by themselves with debating, conducting surveys, perform experiments and so on rather than Force-feeding education as ours, which encourag
17、e students to think independently, and protect their curiosity and thirst for knowledge. In addition, the New Zealand government has set up a number of difficult allowances to rule out the trouble back at home to encourage adults to accept higher education sequentially and improve the national liter
18、acy, which include: students unemployment difficult allowance, housing subsidies and allowances and all kinds of additional students additional funding. New Zealand citizens, the 20 to 40 years old of higher education and received the certificate is more than 40% of the total number of citizens, it
19、is said that the rate is higher than the United States. As a result, from my perspective, the governments of China ought to fully realize the strategic position of education in economic and social development, invest more funds in education, and promote the reform and development of higher education
20、, and then meet peoples increasing demands of high level of education constantly. In the meantime, the department of education in our country should take student- oriented slogan into practice and pay more attention to the development of students personality and creativity. Only in this way can China keep prosperity enduringly.
