Social Policy in Education: A Study of New Zealand

Running head: SOCIAL POLICY
Social Policy
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

SOCIAL POLICY1
Introduction
Social policies are essential segments of lives that protects the welfare and wellbeing of common
people. Some of the common issue protected by the social policy are justice, education, child
protection, health care, crime and criminal justice, rights of immigrants, animal rights, poverty
reduction, etc. This particular essay focuses on the social policy related to the education in New
Zealand and the various factors associated with it. It also aims to shed light on the different
contemporary changes that have been brought to the education policy that has affected the people
of the country in general.
The education policy of New Zealand reflects the educational pattern of the country. It has an
inclusive curriculum that incorporates children education up to the age of 16, flexible educations
options in the secondary education system. The government are focused to impart education that
is student centric and help in the overall achievement of academic excellence (Crawford-Garrett,
2017). Moreover, financial aids are also given to most of the schools and free education is
promoted. The education infrastructure are also provided to improve the education standard. The
socio-economic condition of the country has an impact on the students’ performance that is
above the OECD performance (O'Shea et al., 2016). The inclusiveness of the policy also adds
value to the educational scenario of the country where all students including the disabled, Maori
and Pasifika are focused to give performance specific education. The unemployment rates across
the educational level are much lesser than the OECD average due to which the labor market
perspective plays a significant role in the students’ decision to stay in the academia (O'Shea et
al., 2016). The country is also introducing policies to address the issue of dropout from higher
education due to the lower completion rate as compared to that of the OECD average (Crawford-
Garrett, 2017). In addition to that, the vocational education and training are there that the student

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can opt as a part of post compulsory education. Students can learn these vocational trainings at
various institutes that includes 3 Maori tertiary institutions.
3 theories (Marxist, liberalism, neo-liberalism)
Marxist
The Marxist theory of education indicates some of the key aspects of the society that includes
reproducing and legitimizing class inequality, and working on the interest of the capitalist
employer (Hawkins, 2017). The reproduction of class inequality arises due to the tendency of the
upper class to provide their best capitalist resources to their children for getting superior quality
education. In contrast to that, the working class students is more likely to get poor standard of
education that would enable them to get a working class job.
The legitimization of class inequality states that the culture has accepted the fact that people will
get the education on basis of merit, however, the reality is far different where the quality of
education received rests in the hand of the richer class (Ainscow, 2016).
Thirdly, the Marxist perspective emphasizes on the fact of teaching the curriculum that is
beneficial for the capitalist employers. Since the days of the school, the students are asked to
obey the teachers which later shifts to the workers to the managers. Similarly, the acceptance of
hierarchy correlates with that of accepting the authority of the managers (Shaw, 2019). It also
indicates the motivation to the employees and students are given by external factors like wages
and grades respectively.