What’s the Minister hiding?

The National Party is questioning glowing new figures produced by the Associate Education Minister which he claims shows significant growth in Tertiary Education enrolments.

“But the Minister’s office is refusing to release the statistics to the Opposition for closer scrutiny,” says National’s Tertiary Education spokesman Simon Power.

“The National Party has been told the figures won’t be made public until they’re published on the Ministry of Education’s web-site this Friday.

“How can these statistics be properly questioned or given any credibility when the Minister is refusing to release all of them?

“I’m pleased to see there appears to be an increase in Maori participation in Tertiary Education, but the Minister’s selective release leaves several unanswered questions,” says Mr Power.

“For instance; what was the percentage increase in enrolments at Private Training Establishments (or PTE’s)?

“What was the increase in Maori and Pacific Island participation at PTE’s?

“And what were the over-all rates of participation of Maori and non-Maori at PTE’s?

“We already know this is a Government that likes to control what we think, but this kind of selective press release is taking media management one step too far,” Mr Power says.

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