New classrooms will sit empty if the Government continues failing to keep kids in school and learning the basics, National’s Education spokesperson Erica Stanford says.

“Unless the Government has a plan to turn around dire levels of school attendance, any new classrooms it builds will be half-empty.

“New classrooms are always necessary as the population grows. But the biggest concern in education is that only half of all students are attending school regularly.

“According to a February Cabinet paper, the Government is languishing behind its attendance rate targets. This means that the education outcomes of hundreds of thousands of students are at risk according to the Ministry of Education.

“Three months after Jan Tinetti announced her so-called ‘Attendance Turnaround Package’, just one of the 82 attendance officers that were supposed to start work in Term 2 have made it to the frontline to assist schools.

“That is a disastrous display of delivery, but instead of fronting up to the public the under-fire Education Minister just blamed her officials for her own failings.

“It’s all very well announcing new classrooms, but there are more pressing and fundamental issues with the direction that Labour is taking education in New Zealand.

“Right now, our kids are not going to school, achievement levels are plummeting, and more and more schools are choosing to ditch NCEA Level 1 altogether because they have no confidence in the Government’s NCEA change package.

“Rome burns while Labour fiddles around the edges pretending that all is fine with a business-as-usual announcement that doesn’t address the sector’s most significant challenges.

“Without a proper plan for the future, Labour is robbing hundreds of thousands of Kiwi kids of the world-class education they deserve.

“Rather than excuses and empty classrooms, a National government would restore confidence in the education system by teaching the basics brilliantly so every student has the same opportunity to live the life they want.”

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