Education chief executives welcome leadership chal

Joint Statement: Education chief executives welcome leadership challenge

Secretary for Education, Howard Fancy, Acting Chief Executive, New Zealand Qualifications Authority, Karen Sewell & Chief Executive, Tertiary Education Commission, Janice Shiner

The chief executives of the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education Commission and New Zealand Qualifications Authority have welcomed the recommendations of the government's Education Sector Review released today.

The review calls for a lift in the performance of the senior secondary and tertiary sector. It mandates the three agencies responsible for the development and administration of senior secondary school qualifications and policies relating to tertiary education to work together to build quality and performance.

This will include more co-ordinated development, implementation and communication of priorities and monitoring of sector performance.

"We accept the need for change to the way we work together to lift the performance of the sector, raise the quality of provision and intervene more effectively to support institutions. This is not about adding layers of controls or bureaucracy. It is about working together on our common goals - to set students and adult learners on a path that will contribute positively to their futures and New Zealand's development," said the chief executives.

"This requires us to work jointly with the sector in shaping and managing change and ensuring that the policies we are responsible for better support such changes."

The review highlighted that the scale of change in senior secondary and tertiary education has been huge in recent years with widespread changes in government priorities for investment, qualifications, assessment, participation and access.

The review's recommendations recognise the need to ensure these changes are more effectively supported and communicated to the sector and that there is a greater sense of priority, planning of implementation and monitoring of change.

"We are committed to developing a joint approach to working with the education sector. The emphasis now is on refining and communicating government's priorities and their change implications, and strengthening the focus of the sector on issues of quality and the relevance of learning outcomes. Likewise, the boards of NZQA and TEC are committed to supporting their CEOs in this regard.

"Working in a more integrated way is a challenge that we are keen to tackle together, as education settles into its new direction.

"As a result of this review we can expect better co-operation, a clearer sector mandate, improved relationships and improved communication between the agencies," said the chief executives.

ENDS

The full Education Sector Review report can be accessed on

http://www.ssc.govt.nz/ed-sector-review

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