The Mapp Report
www.wayne-mapp.co.nz

Education: National Shows The Way Forward

Don Brash outlined the way forward for New Zealand Education on Wednesday at Westlake Girls High School. National will provide the tools for parents and local communities to wrest control of their children's learning back from centralised bureaucracies.

Under Labour, the number of education bureaucrats has increased at almost three times the rate of growth in teacher numbers. This means schools are kept poor while hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into keeping this machine functioning, so that the 'one-size-fits-all' blueprint can be imposed on every school, at the cost of parental choice and child learning.

National will slash the bureaucracy waste by decentralising school management, and use the savings to attract and retain outstanding teachers.

Under Labour, the NCEA has turned into a disaster of epic proportions. Top students miss out on scholarships through inept marking systems, while those who fail are swept under the carpet. Our assessment system has become a conspiracy to ensure that you cannot compare students or children. Parents have the right to know how their child is really doing, and how their school is really performing.

A National Government will fundamentally overhaul the NCEA, and reintroduce demanding scholarship exams, where students are given grades they deserve.

We will end the conspiracy to hide information about the performance of pupils and schools.

We will cut back assessment, so that there is more time for teachers to teach and students to learn.

We will introduce national literacy and numeracy standards. Schools will be accountable for meeting those standards. And to ensure that those children who do not initially make the standard do not fall through the cracks, we will provide reading and maths vouchers to the parents of any child who does not achieve national standards at seven. This will provide the resources to parents to ensure their child catches up.

And we will assure parental choice by ending rigid zoning restrictions, and lifting the state's contribution to independent schools.

National is committed to parents and to New Zealand's future generations: we want to see an education system that opens up opportunity, that empowers parents, and provides a path to a better future for all our children.

PUBLIC MEETING : A TUNNEL ACROSS THE WAITEMATA HARBOUR

On Wednesday, 20th April, I am holding a public meeting for interested parties to discuss my proposal for a Harbour Tunnel across the Waitemata. See www.wayne-mapp.co.nz/Harbour_Crossing_Report.pdf, for the full text of the proposal.

Regular readers of the Mapp Report will know that this is an idea whose time has come, and when I launched my proposal on the 23rd of March this year, I received enthusiastic support, notably from North Shore City Councillors.

A second harbour crossing is necessary; the growth of the North Shore over the next 20 years will see the Harbour Bridge come under unbearable pressure; the time for planning for this eventuality is NOW. A harbour tunnel will not only be more aesthetic, but will provide a link to the Southern Motorway as well as the Central City.

I invite you all to attend and give me your feedback.

Date: Wednesday 20th April 2005.

Venue: Milford Baptist Church, Dodson Avenue, Milford, North Shore City.

Time: 7.30pm.

Dr Wayne Mapp

Visit my website for more information at: www.wayne-mapp.co.nz

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