Unimaginative Policy Treats Children as Numbers

Press Release by ACT Education Spokesman David Seymour

Thursday, November 10 2011

Labour’s Education Policy continues a theme of treating children as numbers instead of individuals, ACT New Zealand Education Spokesman David Seymour said today.

“The truth is that every child is unique, but Labour prefers to treat the education system as a factory for students,” Mr Seymour said.

“The party that wants to send every child in the country out to exercise at the same time each week, now wants to stipulate investment in laptops 31,000 at a time, reduce schools’ flexibility around the curriculum and the funding of support staff.

“Even the way schools deal with bullying would come under closer Ministry of Education control.

“It is a policy for educrats. When the rest of the world is giving parents, principals and teachers more local control, Labour advocates a system increasingly run from Wellington.

“In Alberta, Canada it is Charter Schools, in England it is David Cameron’s Free Schools, in Sweden it is the voucher system. In Australia over a third of students now attend independent schools. All of these places are giving power back to Principals.

“ACT’s Interparty Working Group Report Free to Learn has shown that good leadership within a school is the most important factor in a school’s success.

“If New Zealand wishes to improve educational outcomes for all New Zealanders – and particularly our infamous long tail of under achievers – then Labour’s great centralisation is a step in precisely the wrong direction,” Mr Seymour said

ENDS

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