National Party Education Policy Half Baked And Reheated

“The National Party’s education policy consists of half baked and reheated ideas,” says NZEI Te Riu Roa National President, Colin Tarr.

“It must be a concern for National that after eight months as its education spokesperson, Bill English, produced a speech at the party’s annual conference that has very little detail and contains half baked ideas, such as establishing a National Standards Teaching Board.”

“Mr English says teachers would volunteer to be assessed and certified by the board. What is the point of having this board when every teacher is already required to be registered and certified by the Teachers Council, along with having to be attested against a range of professional standards on an annual basis.”

“Establishing a second organisation to certify teachers would be a complete waste of taxpayers money.”

“National is so short of ideas they are reheating policies such as national testing for primary schools and rebranding it as a policy of national standards.”

“What’s worse is that the policy is based on the national testing system that is used in England which has been an abject failure.”

“In England teaching has been reduced to preparing students for national tests so that schools get good scores and a high position on the school league tables.”

“This has placed the teachers and the students in an educational straight jacket that restricts the teachers’ ability to teach and the children’s ability to learn.”

“National has also resorted to lifting ideas from right wing think tanks such as the Education Forum, who’s education policy is written by a policy advisor from the Business Roundtable.”

“Mr English echoes the forum when he says parents should be given information about how schools are performing so they can have the choice of where to send their children.”

“Parents can already find out how any school in the country is performing simply by going to the Education Review Office website and downloading a report on the school.”

“National’s education policy outline contained in Mr English’s speech would contribute nothing to ensure New Zealand children receive a quality education.”

© Scoop Media

NZEI Te Riu Roa

New Zealand Educational Institute

NZEI Te Riu Roa members work in every community in New Zealand, leading and advocating for quality public education.

We are the 50,000 principals, teachers and support staff who work in primary, area and secondary schools as well as early childhood centres, special education and school advisory services. We come together as NZEI Te Riu Roa - New Zealand's largest education union, a Treaty based organisation and a powerful advocate for quality public education.

We have the most important job in New Zealand - educating for the future.

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