Speech
NZQA Top Scholar Awards
Nga mihi o te ata ki a koutou, nau mai haere mai, piki mai kake mai. Greetings to you all this morning, and welcome to Government House.
I specifically acknowledge: Hon Hekia Parata, Minister of Education tēnā koe; and Sue Suckling and Karen Poutasi, Board Chair and Chief Executive respectively of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority - tēnā korua.
Award recipients, your family and friends, school principals, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to join you all this morning for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority Top Scholar Awards Ceremony. I am looking forward to sharing your delight as we recognise those young people who have excelled in their studies, in the 2011 academic year.
In a short time we will be introduced to some of New Zealand’s outstanding young highfliers, as we congratulate them on their achievements. However, before that, I would like to speak briefly on what I think these awards represent, and the challenge ahead for each of the recipients as they prepare for their life and career beyond secondary school.
This NZQA 2011 Top Scholar Awards ceremony acknowledges and celebrates the students with the best NCEA scholarship results nationally. The ceremony today recognises students who applied themselves diligently, purposefully and properly to achieve outstanding results. To be here, the young scholars are one of either the 10 Premier Award winners or 35 Top Subject Scholar Award winners. To give something of a perspective, although each of the subject areas is different, the total cohort was about 15,000 – 26 sat Latin and 15230 sat Statistics and Modelling. Today, we celebrate young people who have refused to be mediocre, and have pursued excellence in their studies.
Today we will also learn just who the very top scholar was in 2011.
There are three “thoughts” that I want to share about the activity we’re marking today. The first is about the achievements of the young men and women here today, which is their attitude of excellence. It seems to me that they, you, understand the importance and implication of striving to be the best you can be. You’ve strived for and achieved excellence. However, it didn’t just happen. Aristotle put it neatly when he said that: - “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
The second thought I offer is on the habit of endeavour. You have, it seems to me, matched your resolve – a habit of excellence – with a good work ethic and hard graft to achieve at the highest levels. England’s former table tennis champion, Matthew Syed, in his book “Bounce” calls it “purposeful practice”. Again, it didn’t just happen.
Your positive attitude, together with a committed and dedicated effort to achieve extraordinary goals, is what has caused you to be here today. The work you did throughout your secondary schooling: the classes, the study, the homework and the exams before the 2011 end-of-year exams, represents over five years of purposeful practice. And as the New Zealand Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens said, “Good preparation equals a good chance of success.”
Your achievement as a scholar in 2011, and the monetary award that comes with that, reflect a snapshot in time. Your achievements are a fantastic endorsement of your capacity and capability individually, and also of young New Zealanders collectively.
However, I remind you that the awards and the effort you put in to be here today are historical: 2011 and some five months ago! The challenge for us all is how we, Minister, bureaucrats, principals as much as the award winners continue to deliver a high level of achievement in our schools. In the context of today’s activity, the onus is on the award recipients and the expectation they will continue to deliver results in their tertiary studies and beyond. That is a serious challenge.
You have a bit of an incentive and some direction because, the condition of the scholarships is that you maintain a ‘B’ grade average (not that difficult I would think) and your tertiary study must be in New Zealand. In this way we retain able young people studying here. The monetary awards are an incentive for you to keep the excellence and effort habits.
Inherent in these awards is a substantive challenge. In time, your generation will inherit our wonderful country. We need your intelligent, industrious and inquisitive minds to lead and shape the future of Aotearoa, New Zealand.
New Zealand needs a smart cosmopolitan society; thinkers, innovators and entrepreneurs to enhance our country, its environment, our prosperity and our standing on the international stage. We need clever and industrious people like you young people in the public and private sectors; in academia, in our schools, in our businesses, on our farms, in the arts, in medicine, dentistry and service organisations. The monetary award gives you a three-year head start, but it’s got to be complemented by a commitment from you.
What is that commitment? These awards demonstrate that we are fortunate to live in a country that encourages and supports its most capable young people to pursue their talents, passions and dreams. How and where you do that is a matter of choice.
It comes back to you young people really. By being here, you have demonstrated superior industry to release your intellectual potential. Along the way you have acquired a great personal foundation on which to build your future – a superior work ethic based on persistence, diligence and committed effort.
The 30th President of the United States had something to say about that when he commented that: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
That’s the how, and now a suggestion for where. An extraordinary New Zealander, who advocated for investing in young New Zealanders for the future of our country, was the late Sir Paul Callaghan. His wasn’t necessarily unconditional; he challenged young New Zealanders to make their contribution here. In the last interview he gave before he died, he said: “What greater sense of fulfilment can there be but to make a difference to the community in which you live? It’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back home and make my life here, as I say to our diaspora, that’s the real opportunity New Zealand offers. It’s hard to make a difference in New York. Here everything you contribute makes a visible difference.”
Your life ahead, and the direction you choose to go, will have a direct impact on our country. You needn’t be daunted by that thought – you should be encouraged. There are few other places in the world where one’s contributions can make such large ripples in their community and in their country.
In a short time, I will be able to congratulate each Top Scholar personally, and I look forward to that opportunity. However, before I do that, I want to acknowledge your parents, caregivers and family, your schools, teachers and principals represented here today. They have played an essential part in encouraging and motivating you all to excel. Parents, you can look forward to celebrating the achievements of your progenies.
To the schools and principals, let me say congratulations, both in respect of the young people here today representing your schools and the environment you have fostered that enabled them to achieve. Some might say that it was by good luck or location that the student or students attended your school. I think that it’s because you and your schools provide the right environment, the proper encouragement that parents chose to send their children to your school. In my experience, luck doesn’t just happen, you make your luck.
Finally, the looks on the faces of the award recipients and your supporters tells of achievement and pride, and rightly so. Let’s get on and celebrate the outstanding achievements of these young men and women.
Kia ora huihui tātou katoa.