Greens Finally Discover Education

Monday 22 Jul 2002

After spending almost three years in parliament without an education policy, the Green Party's brand-new promises are a completely bizarre mix of old fashioned far-left rhetoric and new-age nonsense, ACT Education Spokesman Donna Awatere Huata said today.

"The Green Party intends forcing every child to learn to speak Maori, but they don't have any strategies to improve literacy or numeracy. That's political correctness gone crazy.

"They promise to `eliminate competition from schools' - that means getting rid of examinations, independent schools, competitive sports and all standards.

"The Green Party plans to make the current zoning laws even stronger - that will block more kids from escaping ghetto schools, and force more families apart. The Green Party completely opposes giving schools any freedom over funding decisions.

"I'm stunned that the Green Party wants another bureaucratic inquiry into education - the only people who'll win from that policy are the bureaucrats.

"The Green Party plans to produce 3,000 new teachers and pay them all according to the centralised pay system which has created fourteen months of chaos for our kids. Their crude way to reduce class sizes is to churn out a glut of teachers, without even lifting the low standards at the teacher training colleges.

"The Green Party's NCEA policy is a weak compromise that reeks of months of bickering between policy co-ordinators. They will delay the NCEA, but have no idea what they will replace it with. That indecision will be terrible for secondary school kids if the Green Party is anywhere near government after July 27.

"I'm glad the Green Party has discovered education, but bewildered by the policies they are offering New Zealand families," Mrs Awatere Huata said.

The complete ACT Education policy is available at http://www.act.org.nz/

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