Hon Bill English National Party Education Spokesman

6 May 2005

Mallard passes the buck

National's Education spokesman, Bill English, says students, parents and teachers will be angry and disappointed when they read the State Service Commission's report on the Scholarship Review.

"The report shows a saga of incompetence, complacency and arrogance beyond belief.

"Trevor Mallard has been in charge of NZQA for five years - he is responsible for this.

"Mr Mallard sat on his hands despite regular warnings of huge problems between the NZQA and the Ministry of Education. If he cared at all about students he would have made sure that scholarship would work before agreeing to go ahead with it.

"Our top young scholars are left paying the price for his incompetence.

"Neither Ministers nor bureaucrats have shown any consideration for the aspirations of thousands of young New Zealanders who worked hard towards achieving our premier academic award, only to find themselves the victims of this half-cooked hoax," says Mr English.

ENDS

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