Mr. Philip Arneill:

On whether schools reflect society, I believe the answer is "No". I have found that schools are always in the rearguard and catching up. I believe strongly that schools should be at the vanguard. We see this with the discussion over sex education, which is still being dictated by the church. It does not reflect the society we live in. We see it even with issues such as the amount of time spent on handwriting. When a person enters the world of work, how often does he or she actually employ that skill? On devices, for example, during the pandemic we delivered webinars into schools once they came back into session and we have found that maybe there is one device in the classroom. Part of talking about cyberbullying and the training of teachers must also go hand in hand with getting that technological infrastructure into schools so it reflects the society into which the children will graduate and work. If we are not preparing them for the society they will live in as adults, then what is the purpose of schools in the first place?