Tolley has no milestones to meet standards

Education Minister Anne Tolley has confirmed she has no milestones for national standards, but still told Parliament today she agrees with John Key that progress toward good policy is measured by milestones, says Labour Education spokesperson Trevor Mallard.

“It’s a remarkable contradiction,” Trevor Mallard said. “She describes national standards as her own ‘most important’ policy, but won’t set any milestones for achieving them until her independent advisory group tells her what to do.

“She is a minister without a mind of her own. She describes the implementation of national standards as a three-year programme, and is desperately hoping she won’t be held to account for lack of progress until it becomes someone else’s responsibility after the election next year,” Trevor Mallard said.

“The best she can say about milestones is that they will be ready when they are ready. An incisive comment like that sets a ‘National standard’ all by itself.”

“Anne Tolley agrees that she still has a medium-term objective that all children, other than those with special needs, will meet the numeracy standards, but she has no mechanism in place to measure the success of that objective,” Trevor Mallard said.

“She simply says success will occur at different rates for different students. That’s hardly helpful. She has taken no papers to cabinet including any milestones, so her colleagues are presumably as much in the dark as the rest of us.

“No wonder parents and school boards of trustees, as well as principals, are becoming more restive by the day. It increasingly looks like our children are guinea pigs in an experiment that the Minister can’t control.”

ENDS

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