Katherine Rich MP
National Party Education Spokeswoman

1 June 2007

Steve Maharey backtracks from broken Promise

The Education Minister has finally conceded that Labour's Budget announcement of a maximum of 18 children for junior primary school classes was a major shift from what was originally promised says National's Education spokeswoman, Katherine Rich.

"In the 2005 Election Labour made the clear promise that it would 'employ around 1,300 extra primary teachers in Year 1 classes over the next three years to ensure that by 2008 there are no more than 15 students in a class.'

"The Minister, hoping no one would notice, then announced in the budget that the ratio would be 1:18 by the second term in 2008.

"How the Minister could stand during parliament's question time and pretend that the dilution of his policy was not a broken promise beggared belief when the facts were so clear.

"Short of upping teacher numbers dramatically in the final two terms, he knew full well that the original promise was impossible to keep.

"After pressure from National and NZEI, he's finally backtracked from the Budget-announced ratio to Labour's previous position, albeit that the 1:15 ratio is now promised for 2009, a year later.

"Questions need to be asked about the Minister's ability to actually implement the promise in light of answers he's previously given to parliamentary questions.

"Last year he admitted that 'curriculum staffing for schools is generated on the basis of a teacher-student ratio for each year level. Schools make their own decisions on staff usage and class sizes at any year level. They are not required to report their decisions to the ministry.'

"If schools are not required to fix class sizes, how can he guarantee that every new entrant will be in a class with no more than 14 other students?

"He can make all the promises he likes about class sizes for juniors, but he needs to explain just how he's going to make sure that promise is kept.

ENDS

© Scoop Media