The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says education should not be used as a cash cow and the government would be mad to accept Treasury's latest advice.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says education should not be used as a cash cow and the government would be mad to accept Treasury's latest advice.

In its briefing to the incoming government Treasury has suggested radical reform to free up money, including increasing class sizes and student-teacher ratios and closing down schools.

"This type of reform would be a huge step backwards for our education system and I don't think schools, parents or communities would be willing to accept it.  It is ill-advised advice," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"Parents and schools fought long and hard to lower class sizes and student ratios in recent years particularly in the junior classes, and they would not want to see all that good work undone."

"It's disappointing to hear the Finance Minister say class size doesn't matter when parents and teachers, who see what happens in classrooms everyday, know that children get more out of teaching and learning when they are in smaller groups and can get more one-on-one attention".

"Having bigger classes would also do nothing to improve teacher quality," he says.

Closing down schools would hit communities hard, particularly if there was no educational benefit in doing so.

"Closing a school down impacts heavily on students and families and shouldn't affect a child's right to attend their local school.  Treasury's proposal is purely a money-making scheme for a wholesale sell-off of valuable school property and land which would come at the expense of local communities," Mr Leckie says.

"Surely education should not be a cash-cow for the government.  If Treasury really wanted to free up money in education and improve teacher quality it would reinstate the teacher professional development that the government has taken away and stop wasting tens of millions of dollars on National Standards".

NZEI says worryingly the Ministry of Education's briefing to the new Minister also signals school closures as well as the erosion of school board control over property.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the new Education Minister to guarantee the Government's decision to establish official league tables of secondary schools will not be extended to primary schools.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the new Education Minister to guarantee the Government's decision to establish official league tables of secondary schools will not be extended to primary schools.

When then-Minister Anne Tolley introduced controversial National Standards into primary schools in 2010, she pledged that the Government would not publish league tables.   

Following a visit to Australia, the new Minister Hekia Parata has said the government is considering establishing a new website to compare the performance of secondary schools and she is open to parents being able to rate the performance of schools and teachers.

"That’s a very different position and is disappointing given Anne Tolley's earlier comments," says NZEI President Ian Leckie. "International experience shows that league tables unfairly and inaccurately label children, schools and their communities and do nothing to improve student achievement.  We would sincerely hope and want guarantees that there are no such plans to extend such a system to primary schools - certainly not one which is based on unreliable National Standards information".

Secondary school NCEA results are nationally moderated and parents and schools have a clearer understanding of what they mean.

"The issue for primary schools is that National Standards aren't moderated and there is huge variation in the way schools are implementing them.  It would be a case of junk information in and junk information out.  Officially publishing that information on a government-sponsored website would be misleading for parents and potentially damaging for school communities."

"Schools want to be held accountable but that accountability cannot be based on a measure which is neither fair nor accurate, and is very narrowly focused."

NZEI would welcome the opportunity to meet with Ms Parata to outline its concerns and seek guarantees that student achievement data based on National Standards will not end up on an official website aimed at comparing school performance.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the government is stacking the charter school deck while keeping the public in the dark about how charter schools will work in New Zealand and how they will actually make a difference to student achievement.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the government is stacking the charter school deck while keeping the public in the dark about how charter schools will work in New Zealand and how they will actually make a difference to student achievement.

The Associate Education Minister and sole ACT MP John Banks has said the first charter school will be up and running in south Auckland by the end of the first school term and he has appointed  former ACT Party President Catherine Isaacs to oversee the charter school implementation group.

"Once again we are seeing a total lack of transparency in this whole process and an agenda driven by politics and business rather than education and children," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"Firstly the government and ACT completely blindsided the public by announcing charter schools as part of their coalition deal, and now it is moving to unfairly stack the deck of the committee set up to establish them."

"The charter school agenda was clearly more advanced than the government cares to admit," he says.

Despite the speed at which the government is moving on charter schools, the public and communities where these schools will be established, have seen absolutely no details on how they will be set up and run.

"We are not being told why and how these schools will make a difference to underachieving kids.  Exactly what will a charter school do that is different and how does giving taxpayer money to business to run a school improve student achievement?  These are all questions the government is failing to give New Zealander the answers to," says Mr Leckie.

New Zealand students and schools do better than those in any of the countries where charter schools have been established.  The balance of overseas experience shows that charter schools do nothing to raise educational achievement and can take money away from existing schools and undermine communities.

NZEI believes the children who are missing out on educational success the most are facing the combined hurdles of poor health, bad housing, troubled families and poverty.  These aren't problems schools can fix on their own, and they certainly aren't problems that charter schools can fix.  

NZEI continues to call for any move to establish charter schools to go through a parliamentary select committee process so the public and educators can make submissions and see the issues fairly debated.
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With the new school year about to begin, the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is repeating its call for the government to move to protect centralised 'National Standards' information from being drawn up into damaging league tables.
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With the new school year about to begin, the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is repeating its call for the government to move to protect centralised 'National Standards' information from being drawn up into damaging league tables.

All schools must submit their student achievement data based on 'National Standards' to the Education Ministry by 31 May.

NZEI says schools are deeply concerned that the information will be made public and aggregated into crude league tables that will unfairly label students, schools and their communities.

"It’s a top-of-mind issue and worry for principals, teachers and school as we go into the 2012 school year," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"They know that 'National Standards' data is inconsistent and that each school is interpreting the Standards differently.  Aggregating that data into national or local league tables that give the impression of ranking school effectiveness would be unfair".

"The public should not be duped into thinking the effectiveness of schools can be judged on such inconsistent and flawed assessment which cannot properly reflect a student's learning or progress".

"Any National Standards-based league table will simply reflect school decile and serve to name and shame some of the very schools which are working the hardest to raise student achievement," Mr Leckie says.

NZEI believes that school and teacher accountability is essential and parents have a right to know that their children are engaged in high quality, effective teaching and learning programmes.  

However Mr Leckie says the danger is 'National Standards' will increasingly become a blunt driver of the government's accountability agenda.

"That puts our education system at the mercy of junk information.  It will also create unhealthy competition between schools, the likely massaging of student achievement information and a teaching to the test approach.  Is this really what we want for our world-leading education system and our children?"

NZEI says schools want an assurance that centralised 'National Standards' information will be protected, otherwise the government will find that come 31 May, schools will be reluctant to hand their student achievement data over.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the government to act urgently to help support families and struggling early childhood services in quake-affected areas of Christchurch.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the government to act urgently to help support families and struggling early childhood services in quake-affected areas of Christchurch. 

A just-released report to the Ministry of Education on the impact of the quakes on early childhood education in Christchurch East, shows enrolments are well down and participation rates, particularly among Māori and Pasifika children, have dropped significantly. 

It makes a raft of recommendations to help support and encourage attendance in the area. It says services should be able to offer some flexibility to families without financial loss, staff should be able to spend more time with affected and transitioning families, enrolments and population shifts should be carefully monitored, crown land could be made available for damaged centres to relocate, and the benefits of early childhood participation should be promoted in the community. 

"It is great to see early childhood education in Christchurch finally getting some attention and priority," says NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker. 

Since last year's February quake early childhood services, particularly community-based centres, have been facing huge financial difficulties. A survey last year showed 16 of the 18 ECE centres in quake-affected parts of the city experienced at least $700,000 in funding cuts due to roll drops. Those funding drops have meant job losses or pay cuts for staff and have seen centres reducing operating hours or facing closure. 

Hayley Whitaker says last year the government repeatedly ignored calls from NZEI and early childhood centres to guarantee pre-quake funding levels throughout the year to help give them some certainty. 

"It's critical for Christchurch's children and families that ECE centres have enough funding and support going into the future.  ECE centres play a big part in building and keeping community networks together and that's important in areas where communities have been damaged or dislocated."

"The situation is urgent and the Ministry needs to act on some of the positive recommendations in this report. It's vital that children can participate in early childhood education and everything must be done to make that as easy as possible for the families in and communities of east Christchurch," Ms Whitaker says.
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The education sector union says the government should take note of an Australian study which proves qualified teachers play a critical role in providing quality early childhood education.
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The education sector union says the government should take note of an Australian study which proves qualified teachers play a critical role in providing quality early childhood education.

The E4Kids study which is the Australia's first long-term investigation into the quality of pre-schools and childcare, has found that the standard of teaching in Australian preschools is very poor and many children are attending little more than a glorified playgroup.

In almost all Australian states there is no legislative or regulatory requirement to employ a qualified teacher in an early childhood centre, although a range of new minimum qualification requirements has just been introduced.

NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker says the study proves the correlation between poor standards and low numbers of qualified early childhood teachers.    
"We know that fully qualified teachers are what drive high standards and establish effective learning environments.  New Zealand is well ahead of where Australia is but the danger is that recent government policy is undermining that and taking us backwards," she says.

During the National-led government’s first term in office it axed the 100% fully qualified teacher target, slashed funding to services which have more than 80% qualified staff, cut grants supporting newly qualified teachers to get full registration and withdrawn professional development funding.

It also scrapped planned improvements to teacher ratios for two year olds and changed licensing rules which means services can now have up to 150 children in a centre.

"Much of the progress we have made is being eroded and we don’t want to be back in the position where Australia now finds itself.   Quality is not something which should be compromised at the most important learning stage of children’s lives," Ms Whitaker says.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says contrary to claims by the Education Minister, principals in south Auckland have no appetite for charter schools.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says contrary to claims by the Education Minister, principals in south Auckland have no appetite for charter schools.

Hekia Parata has said that principals and parents are queuing up for the first charter school, and that there is very high demand.

NZEI has spoken to 87 principals in south Auckland.  The vast majority have said they are either concerned or very concerned about the prospect of charter schools, while only four said they could see some benefit.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says they are concerned on a number of fronts.

"Firstly they are suspicious about the government's privatisation agenda for education, secondly they believe charter schools are unmandated coalition policy, and thirdly they feel that low decile communities are being unfairly targeted by government claims that charter schools are needed in areas where underachievement is entrenched."

"Some of these schools work harder than any others in the country to raise student achievement and there is no recognition of the effective programmes they already have in place. The problems of underachievement are complex and principals in south Auckland know that charter schools will do nothing to fix them".

Mr Leckie says it's important to remember that the people of south Auckland did not vote for charter schools and have not been asked whether they want to hand over their children's education to private business where there is limited accountability.

NZEI says there is clearly a disconnect between what the Minister is saying and what people and educators in south Auckland are feeling.

"Perhaps the Minister should release some more details about exactly what these schools will look like and talk to those communities which will be affected by what represents a major shift change to the foundations of our public education system," says Mr Leckie.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is disappointed by comments from the new Education Minister which show the government is rushing full speed ahead with charter schools.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is disappointed by comments from the new Education Minister which show the government is rushing full speed ahead with charter schools.

Hekia Parata has reportedly said today that there is a great deal of interest in charter schools in south Auckland and some educators are already putting their hands up to run them.

"The speed at which the government is moving on what is completely unmandated coalition policy is worrying," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"It's important to remember that the people of south Auckland did not vote for charter schools and have not been asked whether they want to hand over their children's education to private business where there is limited accountability."

"Our students and schools do better than those in any of the countries where charter schools have been established.  Overseas experience shows that charter schools do nothing to raise educational achievement and can take money away from existing schools and undermine communities".

NZEI believes the children who are missing out on educational success the most are facing the combined hurdles of poor health, bad housing, troubled families and poverty.  These aren’t problems schools can fix on their own, and they certainly aren't problems that charter schools can fix.  

Mr Leckie says "the government needs to pull back and listen to the public concern being expressed about charter schools and front up with some real answers as to why New Zealand needs them before giving any business or company the green light".

NZEI is also calling for any move to establish charter schools to go through proper parliamentary processes so the public at least has a chance to make submissions and have the issues debated.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is urging the government to come clean about its agenda for education and any plans it may have to change the way school principals are hired.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is urging the government to come clean about its agenda for education and any plans it may have to change the way school principals are hired.

Media reports suggest that the government is planning to make the Ministry of Education responsible for the appointment of principals rather than boards, and also ban them from speaking out against government policy.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says the suggestions are alarming and need to be honestly confirmed or denied.

"There have been a lot of rumours and speculation about the issue and principals and schools are understandably very anxious.  Removing the ability of schools and their communities to hire their own principal strikes at the heart of Tomorrow's Schools and you have to wonder how much further the government is willing to go".

"There's also the question of motive," says Mr Leckie.

"Handing over the employment of principals directly to the Ministry and attempting to gag them is a likely response to principals' widespread criticism of National Standards".

NZEI says like charter schools, the government seems like its readying to push through more unmandated educational change and policy.

"Changing the way principals are hired and managed would represent a major shift to our quality education system.  It would be completely wrong and would be met with opposition from principals, schools and communities.  It would also get the new Education Minister off to a very bad start with the sector as a whole," says Mr Leckie.

"The government needs to front up and be honest about what's on its agenda for education and put an end to the climate of suspicion and mistrust that it is fostering".
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is hoping there will be opportunities to forge a strong and constructive working relationship with the new Education Minister.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is hoping there will be opportunities to forge a strong and constructive working relationship with the new Education Minister.

In the new cabinet line-up Hekia Parata takes over the education portfolio from Anne Tolley.

NZEI which represents more than 50,000 teachers, principals and education workers acknowledges that the past three years have been challenging.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says "we have seen a lot of policy and measures introduced such as National Standards and cuts to early childhood funding, which have definitely put a strain on the relationship between educational professionals and the government".

"We have a great education system which we want to see made into a truly excellent one.  To do that there must be a healthy and respectful relationship between the education sector and government".

NZEI believes there are many challenges ahead.

"Charter schools, fundamental problems with National Standards, raising Māori student achievement, the government's failure to commit to 100% qualified early childhood teachers, the future of education in Christchurch, more support for special needs students and recognising the professional work and value of school support staff are all issues which deserve full and open discussion," says Mr Leckie.

NZEI hopes the new minister will take on these challenges with an inclusive and constructive approach which values the voice of teachers, principals and communities.

It also wishes Anne Tolley well in her newly-appointed roles.

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