Don Brash MP
National Party Leader
29 January 2005

Brash attacks 'deeply troubling' NCEA question

National Party Leader Don Brash is calling for an urgent explanation from Education Minister David Benson-Pope over a "deeply troubling" question in the NCEA history paper.

He is referring to a question which asks students to write from the perspective of 'A National Party Member of Parliament not sympathetic to Maori concerns'. The question is accompanied by a caricature of a tall bespectacled man in a suit.

"I am appalled and angry at this and I want some answers from the Minister," Dr Brash says.

"I want him to explain why this question was written and how it slipped through the checking processes.

"And I want him to make public the NZQA's model answers to the question.

"This is much too serious for the Minister to fob this on to one of his officials.

"I have absolutely no doubt that most parents would be horrified at the suggestion that their children are being exposed to blatant Labour Party political propaganda in their NCEA exams.

"This is deeply troubling and I think our children need to be protected from it.

"It is very close to brainwashing.

"It is an outrageous abuse of public resources and is totally inappropriate for an agency that must be politically neutral.

"Our kids deserve a lot better than this from our education system," says Dr Brash.

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