Hon Bill English MP
National Party Education Spokesman

25 October 2006

30% of schools in the dark

Almost 30 percent of schools have no useful information about which of their students are failing, says National’s Education spokesman, Bill English.

The Education Review Office Annual Report, released this month, says that just 71% of schools reviewed this year had access to ‘good or some useful information about progress and achievement of all their students’.

“This means that almost 30% of schools don’t have the information they need to teach their children according to current best practice,” says Mr English.

“If teachers don’t know what level their students have achieved, how do they know what to teach them next?

“Schools which have no useful information about student achievement can’t give parents anything more than bland generalisations about their child. That’s not good enough.

"There is no excuse for schools failing to use best practice. Labour's softly softly policy on measuring student achievement tolerates sub-standard teaching practice and betrays students and parents.

"Education minister Steve Maharey should move urgently to require all schools to do the job properly," says Mr English.

ENDS

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