A Revolution In Education Is What's Needed

Sunday 22 Aug 2004
Deborah Coddington
Speeches -- Education

Speech Extracts to "Taking Auckland's Pulse" public meeting; Bruce Mason Centre; Takapuna; Sunday August 22, 2004.

ACT would take New Zealand children back into the top international standards in literacy, mathematics and science.

But to do that we need a revolution in education.

National would only tinker with the Education Act. This country has been tinkering with the Education Act for thirty years and more and more children are leaving school unable to read basic instructions.

Last week, a school principal from Otara asked me what I'd do to raise the performance of Pacific Island students. I said I'd have a revolution in teacher training and have Pacific Island children taught according to what's in their heads, not according to their skin colour.

I would end what George W. Bush called "the soft bigotry of low expectations".

I also attended a teachers' conference on Friday in Auckland. I heard presentations by teachers I would have crawled over ground glass to have teach my children.

If I was a school principal I would love to have total flexibility of funding so I could offer these great teachers higher wages and better conditions to get them into my school.

But these teachers are at schools in Auckland outside my suburb. The Government dictates what schools pay teachers - regardless of whether they are good or bad.

There are many great people in education in New Zealand. Passionate about raising expectations. Passionate about raising standards. Passionate about raising New Zealand's sights. Inspirational in schools, classrooms, early childhood and tertiary.

And there are parents. ACT believes all parents should be free to choose their child's schooling. Let the funding follow the child regardless of who owns the school - public, private, church, integrated or home school.

All these people deserve a revolution in education. ACT will continue to campaign for this. ACT will drag the debate out to the extremes.

This will clear the way for National to do more than just tinker with education. Then this country might, with ACT keeping National right, have at least a mini-revolution.

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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