Media statement
For immediate release
Monday, 2 April 2007

Key challenged on education and performance pay

United Future educations spokesperson Judy Turner says National leader John Key must clarify the intended purpose of testing primary children against national standards, saying testing must be seen as a diagnostic tool for student progression rather than simply a ranking exercise.

“My concern is that National simply want to rank children against each other, rather than use testing to be to support new learning and to diagnose gaps in learning as United Future would like to see,” says Mrs Turner.

“Questions must be asked whether there is an underlying agenda for National here.

“The focus for National appears to be on ranking children against others around the country – this smells a lot like National setting up the first step toward performance pay for teachers, which United Future whole-heartedly rejects.

“I call on Mr Key to come clean and specify for the record whether National plans to implement performance pay for teachers if they are the Government next time round,” challenges Mrs Turner.

ENDS

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