Education Professionals await next National Standards Battle

Education Professionals prepare for next National Standards Battle

Three educational groups, the New Zealand Education Institute, New Zealand Principals’ Federation and Boards Taking Action Coalition have today announced that they will fight the next phase of the national standards battle together.

‘We will not be walking away from this fight despite the political threats and bullying that our sector has endured for months and continues to suffer,’ said Peter Simpson, President of the NZPF. ‘We have a duty to the children of this country to maintain the very high educational standards we have now and not just let our children’s futures and our high international rankings be destroyed by a political neoliberal ideology which has captured the present government,’ said Simpson.

One of the reasons for introducing national standards, a system which assumes every child in the country is the same, starts the same, learns the same and progresses at exactly the same rate, was so that parents could compare their child against every other child nationally and compare schools with one another.

‘It’s nonsense that every child starts the same and progresses the same way,’ says Simpson. ‘Every parent in the country knows that and pouring millions of dollars into a system to create league tables comparing schools is a total waste of precious education funds. The OECD report last year demonstrated that there is hardly any variance in the performance of schools in New Zealand irrespective of decile level.’

‘The government’s national standards have been problematic since their hurried and shoddy introduction after the last election and as we approach the next election the problems are no less serious,’ said Simpson. ‘The difference now is that opposition to this most ill-advised policy, is gaining momentum and today’s move provides the platform to build even stronger opposition,’ said Simpson.

For more information visit www.nzpf.ac.nz

ENDS

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