Hone Harawira
MANA Leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau

4 December 2013

National Gets Hammered Over Education

“National’s education policies have just taken a hammering in an international assessment which has heavily downgraded NZ student’s achievements in maths, science and reading,” said MANA leader and Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira. “And yet they refuse to accept that the deteriorating test scores and NZ dropping out of the top 10 are because of their out-of-touch education policies.”

“The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report highlights the fact that National’s approach has increased inequities between schools” said Harawira. “It also notes that the gap between test scores in high and low decile schools is bigger than ever before, and ranks NZ firmly in the bottom third of OECD countries in terms of equity rating.”

“The report recommended increasing equity, increasing resources and providing help for poor children, but this government has put all of its energy into other areas like national standards, private education, and now charter schools.”

“They have also cut back on science advisors, attacked the unions and criticised teacher standards, all the while paying them through a broken Novapay system, the sum result of which has been to confuse, confound and demoralise teachers in what was widely recognised as one of the best teaching collectives in the world.”

“The PISA report proves conclusively that National is failing our teachers and failing our kids, particularly those in the poorest schools and those living in the poorest areas” said Harawira, “and given that Māori are already way behind the rest of the country in educational achievement, the outlook under this National led government is bloody grim.”

The MANA Leader says the fact that our students’ achievement rates are seriously declining comes as no real surprise. “It’s the governments inadmission of their dismal performance which is the real issue.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media