19 December 2012
Longstone resignation welcomed – Hekia Parata should follow suit
Education Secretary Lesley Longstone’s resignation will be welcomed across the education sector as would be an
announcement that Minister of Education Hekia Parata will follow suit.
Longstone’s resignation comes at the end of a woeful litany of botchups which have left the sector feeling battered and
bruised.
There can surely have been no other year in the history of New Zealand education where each week the Minister and her
secretary have hoisted a new crisis of incompetence onto parents, teachers and schools.
The combination of National’s agenda to privatise education and inept administration has frequently left parents and
teachers shaking their heads in despair.
Longstone had a hand in all of this year’s education failures but she wasn’t the driver of the bad policies. That
responsibility lies with the Minister and she should follow suit and resign.
ENDS