16th February 2011

The Prime Minister’s admission that there are problems with National Standards is a significant victory for the thousands of parents, teachers, principals and academics who have expressed deep concerns, says the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.

During a visit to an Auckland school yesterday with the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, John Key acknowledged that National Standards had not gone as smoothly as planned, and that the first year had effectively been a trial.

Since the Standards were launched last year, growing numbers in school communities have said they have no confidence in the Standards and they will do nothing to raise student achievement.

“John Key’s comments completely validate those concerns and send a clear message to schools that even the government can’t keep up the façade that implementation of the Standards is going well,” says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

NZEI had repeatedly called on the government to trial National Standards before rolling them out to schools nationwide. It launched a petition in support of a trial which was signed by tens of thousands of New Zealanders and thousands of school communities.

“It is ironic to see the Prime Minister now saying that the first year of National Standards has effectively been a trial when the Education Minister has repeatedly said there is no need for a trial and the government has stubbornly refused to agree to one,” says Mr Leckie.

The implementation of the Standards and the way they are being interpreted varies wildly from school to school, making any information completely meaningless. Already 300 school boards have taken a public stand and said they will not use the Standards to set their student achievement targets

“We know that using a set of untrialled National Standards as the basis for predicting student achievement is unreliable. These are the sort of warnings that teachers, principals and educationalists have been trying to give to the government about the Standards. Now those problems are coming home to roost the government is going to have to face up to them,” Ian Leckie says.

It’s time for John Key and his government to go a step further and acknowledge that National Standards add no value and are getting in the way of moving New Zealand’s already great education system into an even greater one.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media