Labour Introduces Segregated Schools

Friday 30 Aug 2002

Labour's policies of forced zoning and voluntary NCEA ratification will combine to enlarge the already huge divide between opportunities for wealthy children and their poorer cousins, ACT Education Spokesman Donna Awatere Huata said today.

"Many of New Zealand's best schools are sensibly opting out of NCEA Level Two. But parents are not allowed to send their children to those schools unless they are wealthy enough to live inside the best zones.

"This is segregation of the worst kind. The Government is forcing poor families to commit their children to the lunatic NCEA experiment.

"Education and qualifications are the only tickets out of poverty. But Labour is forcing poor families to accept second-rate, meaningless NCEA certificates without any choice whatsoever.

"We saw in this week's international comparison of literacy that New Zealand children of poor parents rank significantly below the OECD mean. The disparity in New Zealand will only grow as wealthy suburbs consolidate around good schools and urban ghettoes fully develop around dysfunctional institutions.

"The bitter results of this ethnic and elitist segregation will be felt for decades to come," Mrs Awatere Huata said.

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