An exciting time for boards of trustees, says NZSTA

An exciting time for boards of trustees, says NZSTA

The New Zealand School Trustees Association is looking forward to working with the new government to refresh and revitalise the education system for all our children and young people. The incoming government has a strong focus on education, and a high level of consensus among the governing parties on what they want to achieve.

There’s no doubting how serious the incoming government is about education, with four Ministerial portfolios announced by Prime Minister-elect Jacinda Ardern. Education Minister Chris Hipkins will be assisted by Associate Ministers Kelvin Davis (Māori education), Jenny Salesa and Tracey Martin.

Five other portfolios have also been announced that will have a strong influence on the education environment. Jacinda Ardern is Minister for Child Poverty Reduction, Carmel Sepuloni is Minister for Social Development, Disability Issues and Pacific Peoples, and Tracey Martin is Minister for Children as well as an Associate Minister of Education.

"We are particularly pleased that many of the policies the incoming government campaigned on echo things that NZSTA has also been promoting and working towards over recent years," says NZSTA President Lorraine Kerr.

"An agreed long-term strategic plan for education, fully funding schools to provide a genuinely free education for all students, improving the way the system provides for students with special education needs, and making the Communities of Learning model more flexible so they can meet the needs of their local community are all ideas we’ve been actively working on - and they’re not the only ones," she says.

"That said, the most important thing about education is remembering that it’s there for the students. Every policy needs to be tracked back to how it will improve things for students, and we are, and will continue to be, relentless about doing that. Everything else is a means to that end."

NZSTA says that the fair society policies in the Green Party Confidence and Supply Agreement will also make a huge difference to students’ readiness and ability to focus on succeeding at school.

"This is an exciting time for our member boards, and we’re looking forward to it."

ENDS

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