Ellesmere College students get a river-crossing pep-talk from their instructor. Photo: Georgia Merton
Changes to the secondary school curriculum would likely mean outdoor education becomes a vocational path, but feedback from across industries suggests the ministry can't see the woods for the trees.
A petition to keep outdoor education as part of the secondary school curriculum has amassed over 40,000 signatures.
Last month Education Minister Erica Stanford announced an overhaul of the secondary education curriculum, phasing out NCEA and replacing it with a general subject list, of which students would select five subjects.
Outdoor education is on the general subject list but as a Vocational Education and Training (VET) subject, meaning it won't contribute towards university entrance.
The way outdoor education currently operates under NCEA is as a vocational subject - but teachers are able to use standards from the Physical Education subject (which is recognised as a university entrance subject) in the curriculum. It's unclear if this will still be possible after the changes come into effect.
The uncertainty around the future of outdoor education, combined with the lack of concrete decisions, has caused concern among educators and industry experts, prompting a petition from Education Outdoors NZ (EONZ) which will be delivered to Minister Stanford.
Fiona McDonald, EONZ chief executive says the response to the petition has been overwhelming, with people from a wide range of industries backing it.
"Doctors, principals, engineers, we've had CEs of large international companies that are crediting outdoor ed with their success," she says.
In today's episode, McDonald tells The Detail about the range of skills students can learn through outdoor education and what impact losing it as a core subject would have, not only on schools here, but on our international reputation for attracting exchange students.
Claire Amos, principal at Albany Senior High School says classifying subjects as vocational has consequences.
"For one, they actually lose their funding and resourcing ... and they will be handed over to industry to develop and support the creation of the resources.
"It's privatisation by stealth. It's turning our education system into something that is delivered by private companies," she says.
Currently schools work with a government entity called Toi Mai when developing outdoor education curriculum, but Amos says that it is set to be disestablished, leaving schools, students and educators in the dark over what comes next.
Amos says it's not a matter of deciding which subject is more important, but recognising that they all complement each other, and that to classify any subject as purely academic or purely vocational is problematic.
"We know that the sciences are supported by the arts, that physical wellbeing and problem-solving and leadership skill-building actually supports people in business and industry," she says.
Rob MacLean is an emergency department nurse, but spent two decades of his career working in the outdoor education sector, including a stint as director for Outward Bound. Before that he also studied environmental science, spending time in Antarctica and Alaska, and has also worked in community engagement and risk management advisory.
He credits his high school outdoor education programme as having "an influence on every single career change."
"Some of those formative experiences in the outdoors has had direct linkages to every one of those careers," he says.
MacLean says in some ways the proposed plan to move outdoor ed into the vocational pathway makes sense, as it can set people up for specific careers, but worries that the move would mean more focus on practice and less on theory.
"You can focus on tying knots, you can focus on cramponing techniques but the theory behind it is also profound and even more powerful," he says.
MacLean gives an example of how the doctors he works with in ED use critical thinking skills, to avoid 'risk traps'.
"A lot of the models they're using to make sure ... they're not making mistakes with their thinking around clinical cases actually come out of the aviation sector, but the people that took them out of the aviation sector and made them more accessible were avalanche forecasters."
MacLean says this example shows how transferable the skills learnt through outdoor education are.
He says if the goal is to create a future generation that can drive an economy that's strong and vibrant, outdoor education must be part of the main school curriculum.
"Two of the biggest things that we trade on as a nation are both our natural environment and our human capital and to step away from a topic that provides such a holistic level of training in those two areas is a strategic backstep."
*This article has been updated for clarity, and to correct an earlier version that said the Ministry indicated outdoor education would be removed from the subjects.
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.
You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
