Quality Public education Coalition

QPEC welcomes the government decision not to increase class sizes as a victory for our kids' edcuation.

It's a relief the right decision has been reached and we congratulate parents, teachers, principals, boards of trustees and education academics for their unified pressure which forced the government to the right decision.

It is deeply disappointing such an awful decision was taken in the first place and parents and educators will need to be on their guard because it seems inevitable that under this government further Treasury-driven policies will be in the pipeline for education.

We are particularly concerned the government may now shift focus to attack the collaborative nature of teaching and learning with plans to implement so-called performance pay for teachers. Such a move would represent a similar danger to children's education as increasing class sizes.

At the same time we also welcome the Minister's committment to working at policies to improve student achievement particularly for Maori, Pacifika and children from low-income communities. However we'd like to see the Minister work with teachers and schools to this end rather than working with Treasury to impose bad policy.

In the meantime children, parents and teachers can get on with the job of keeping New Zealand schools close to the top in international educational success.

ENDS

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