The Government moved to cover up its monumental error in under-estimating school rolls this year by blocking an inquiry into the Ministry of Education's flawed projections, says National's Education spokesman, Nick Smith.

"The nearly 6000 additional pupils are causing chaos in schools with too few classrooms and teachers to cope. For the Ministry to project 1300 extra pupils when there are 7000 extra is a near-500 percent error. Schools, teachers and parents deserve an answer as to what has gone wrong."

Dr Smith's motion to hold an inquiry at the Education and Science Select Committee today was supported by NZ First but voted down by the Alliance's Liz Gordon and Labour's Helen Duncan, David Benson-Pope and Nanaia Mahuta.

"Government members blocked the inquiry because they have something to hide. The errors are a huge embarrassment and saving face has become more important than finding the truth," says Dr Smith.

"The tragedy is that unless people come clean and learn from their mistakes, the errors can be repeated. Schools, teachers and pupils can only expect a repeat of these sorts of blunders in roll management with this sort of 'head in the sand' approach from Government," he says.

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