Tuesday, July 24 2001
Donna Awatere Huata
Press Releases -- Primary & Secondary Education

The Education Amendment Bill puts the whims of bureaucrats ahead of the needs of students, ACT MP Donna Awatere Huata said today.

"This Bill marks a perverse success for pencil-pushers obsessed with meaningless process. Yet again, kids will get a raw deal from Trevor Mallard.

"Schools will have to provide the Ministry of Education with reams and reams of information about their students' performance in internal exams.

"The Ministry's men in dark suits will pore over this information, but they won't glean a single useful fact from it.

"That's because the Ministry is not being provided with any power to require schools to give standardised tests: a 50% at one school is absolutely meaningless compared to a 50% at another institute.

"This Bill is an example of what happens when bureaucrats with no real experience are let loose on the education system. Mr Mallard is committing schools' resources to an absolutely pointless endeavour," Mrs Awatere Huata said.

ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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