National Standards Timeline A Victory For Commonse

National Standards Timeline A Victory For Commonsense

The government’s just–announced timeline for the implementation and reporting of new national standards of educational achievement represents a victory for commonsense, says the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.

The Education Minister has released a timeline which recognises and takes account of concerns raised by teachers and principals that the draft timeframe was too tight.

NZEI President Frances Nelson says while national standards will still be implemented next year and used to report back to parents, schools will have until 2012 before using them to formally report back on student achievement.

“It is reassuring that the Minister has listened to the feedback from the sector and given us extra time to bed down the standards and road test them before any formal reporting has to happen,” she says.

“Teachers and principals will also look forward to having more time to connect the standards with the new curriculum. We want to get both things right so student learning isn’t compromised. We were concerned that the pressure and reporting requirements for national standards could undermine the work being done on the curriculum.”

There has been overwhelming concern from the education sector about the potential for national standards data to be misused and published in the form of simplistic school league tables.

However Frances Nelson says pushing out the deadline for the official collection of standards-based achievement information will give everyone a bit of breathing space to work through the issues and ensure the data is used for the purpose it is intended.

ENDS

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