Launch of new education resource

E nga iwi e tau nei, tena koutou

Greetings:  The Honourable Marian Hobbs, the Honourable Bill English, Ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you very much for being here today and joining me for the launch of this new teaching resource.  I am delighted to be able to welcome you here to Government House. 

When I started as Governor-General some three and a half years ago, I had little idea about exactly what the job would involve.  In this respect I was no different from the vast majority of New Zealanders who are probably slightly mystified when it comes to defining the precise duties of the Governor-General.

While visiting schools and meeting students from all parts of New Zealand, it became obvious to me, first that there was a poor understanding of the constitutional role of the Governor-General, and what was of real concern to me, that these students might be the citizens called on in the future to make decisions about our constitutional framework.  I came to the view that without at least a passing understanding of our current system they would not be well equipped to decide whether to retain what we have or to choose a new structure. 

I also became a ware that there was little in the way of educational resources directed at providing good accurate information on the office of Governor-General.  So, very early on in my tenure my support team and I decided to do something about this.  The first thing we did was to incorporate as many school visits as possible into my schedule and to date I have visited close to 100 schools the length and breadth of New Zealand.  We then decided to design a comprehensive education programme, which would enable all schools to learn about the office of the Governor-General and to interact with Government House. 

We now have some very good initiatives in place. These include visits by my Aides de Camp to schools, and we have also begun a scheme under which we invite pupils to Government House where they become honorary Aides de Camp and participate in my activities for a day.

But to make information on the role of the Governor-General truly accessible to all schools, we had to go a bit further.  We had to design our own classroom resources and make them available free of charge to all schools in New Zealand.  This task is now complete and I am very pleased that we are able to launch these resources today.

Our development process has been extremely thorough.  Our first port of call was the Ministry of Education which advised us on which areas of the social studies curriculum the resources best connected to. 

Our project managers, the experienced teachers and publishers Neale Pitches and Samantha Brott Venning, then set up a working party of primary and secondary school teachers to plan the resources in a classroom-friendly way.

The initial drafts of the resources were peer-reviewed and the final versions were eventually trialed at primary and secondary schools in April and May.  Now we have the finished product - resources that have been planned by teachers, written by teachers, reviewed and trialed by teachers and that hopefully will be widely used by teachers throughout New Zealand.

Dedicated teacher Mark van Doren once said "the art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery."  This approach is a cornerstone of the resources we are launching today.  We have made all necessary materials available, but we fully expect and intend the resources to be used and adapted by teachers to the needs of their specific classes. 

A special feature of the resources is their cutting edge practice around formative assessment where students and their teachers are challenged to complete demanding research tasks and then demonstrate higher order thinking in relation to the information they have researched.  These tasks can be completed by students at all levels.

The resource we have produced is web-based and can be obtained through the Government House website.  It ties in with the other initiatives I have mentioned, the school visits by Aides de Camp and also the visits to Government House by students.  And perhaps study of the resource will inspire a class from your school to visit Government House.

By launching the resource now schools have the opportunity to put the studies into their 2005 plans.  I hope that many of you will find room in your teaching programme for it.

Before we hear a little bit more about the resources, may I say a few words about the teaching profession.  You, the teachers of New Zealand, are the backbone of society in terms of paving a way into our future.  If you do your job well, we will have new generations of well-educated and smart New Zealanders who will lead us into new times.  American writer Henry Brooks Adams once very appropriately said that "a teacher affects eternity" - a sentiment I wholeheartedly concur with. You are to be congratulated on taking on this responsibility and I cannot overstate the respect I have for your work.

Although not a member of the teaching profession, I believe I have visited enough schools from every socio-economic group and from every part of New Zealand to be qualified to say that by and large you are doing a wonderful job.  I am proud of the educational standards of our children, and you are to be thanked for their achievements.  There is always much more to be done, but be proud of what you have achieved - and don't rest on your laurels!

Thank you so much for joining us for this launch today.