Nick Smith National Education Spokesperson

14 October 2003

National welcomes new deal for education

The Education Forum has added huge value to the debate on the future direction of education policy with its "A New Deal" paper, says National's Education Spokesperson Nick Smith.

"This is the sort of high policy work that the Ministry of Education should be producing. This work honestly confronts the widespread problems of predictable failure and proffers real solutions based on sound research.

"Most importantly, the paper rightly puts the interests of children ahead of adults in education, be it the state bureaucracy, teachers, trustees, or politicians.

"The paper is part of a wave of fresh thinking in education that can't be ignored. There is a strong commonality of view between it and National's "Schools of Excellence", the Knowledge Wave conference papers on education, Maxim Institute's "Vying for Our Children" and Deborah Coddington's "Let Parents Choose".

"The tragedy is that the Labour Government is so politically captured by the teacher unions and it's own ideology, that it is incapable of engaging in this critical debate.

"New Zealand children need a new deal in education. The Government's agenda of increased state control, and political correctness is dumbing down standards and sidelining parents. The Education Forum has laid a sound foundation for a far more dynamic and successful education system," Dr Smith said.

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