Education Minister Jan Tinetti has conceded that after five years of a Labour Government there has been no improvement in the achievement levels of primary school students, National’s Education spokesperson Erica Stanford says.

“Today in Parliament, the Minister was forced to admit – after more than five years of Labour – achievement levels of Year 8 students have not improved at all.

“This a shocking statement from a Minister whose Government is spending an extra $5 billion on education every year but has failed to deliver any improvement in education outcomes.

“The Minister’s main job is to ensure that kids leave school with the skills they need to succeed.

“Instead, the only thing that Labour can point to after five years in government is a waffling strategy document that fails to explain what concrete steps they will take to turn around our falling standards, and hasn’t even been implemented yet.

“Data from the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) shows that just 45 per cent of Year 8 students were meeting curriculum expectations in maths, 35 per cent for writing and 20 per cent for science.

“This is simply not good enough.

“Our children deserve better than a Government that is considering making tests easier to avoid a bad headline.

"We need a serious plan to deliver kids an education with the basics they need to succeed, not more excuses. National will be laser-focused on lifting student performance and making sure that resources are making it out of Wellington offices and making it into classrooms.”

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