Maharey Steve: Education Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Maharey Steve: Education Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:2882] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 Yes I am sure as my colleague says that Dail does not mind at all being elevated in that way given his profession. 
The bill implements a number of policy changes to improve the efficient administration of education. It also starts a process of tidying up some of the cluttered education legislation. I want the Government’s strategic direction for education to be underpinned by clear and consistent legislation. Certainly that was the aim of my predecessor as well. 
The Government has undertaken major reforms in early childhood education. Our 10-year strategic plan  
Pathways to the Future: Nga Huaraki Arataki  
sets out to increase participation in quality early childhood education improve quality overall and promote collaboration. As part of that plan we want to implement a new regulatory regime for early childhood education. The bill replaces Part 26 of the existing Education Act 1989 with a new Part 26. That change will legally underpin the Government’s key policy to provide all New Zealand children with quality early childhood education—a policy that enjoys support right across the early childhood sector. Existing provisions contain ambiguities. The new amendments will give the early childhood sector more certainty about the standards they need to meet to provide this quality; as I have signalled to the sector we intend to ensure that these standards work and to preserve the high level of diversity right across early childhood education. The second significant amendment to the Education Act 1989 provides for the existing National Student Number to be extended throughout the whole education sector. The National Student Number is already used in the senior secondary school and tertiary sectors to keep students’ academic records correct and to ensure the efficient and accurate funding of our education institutions. Extending the National Student Number will help us to get reliable and speedy information in order to identify non-enrolments when students move from one school to the other—an issue that concerns members right across this House. The National Student Number will also solve problems of national data collection as currently a number of stand-alone systems are used by schools and early childhood services to record this information. Researchers will be able to obtain statistics information for their longitudinal research so we will be able to see how well our students are doing nationally and internationally and how we can do more to help them. The National Student Number will also solve problems of national data collection by enabling the stand-alone systems that are used by schools early childhood services and education agencies to “talk” and interact with each other which will also advance our cause. 
The bill contains amendments that will make things easier for boards of trustees to carry out the important work they do in managing our schools. It clarifies some procedural issues for the Teachers Council especially in relation to the registration and discipline of teachers. The bill updates the provisions relating to scholarships for teacher training and it provides that these bonded scholarships are repaid through the student loan scheme if the recipients default on their obligations. 
As I stated before I want the Government’s strategic direction in education to be underpinned by clear and consistent legislation. Our current legislation is much amended and some of it is out of date. This bill makes a start on some of the work needed to clear away old legislation such as the transitional School Trustees Act. It has updated some old provisions of the Education Act 1964 and transferred them to the 1989 Act—an example of that is the offence of insulting intimidating or abusing staff in our schools and early childhood centres. 
Education is one of the key aspects of the Labour Government’s plan for this country. Indeed we see education as being essential to the transformation that we are seeking to bring about in the economy because we know that we need a more qualified group of people who are staying in school then moving on to get further qualifications when they leave. We know that that is crucial to the development of our social policy because we believe that if we have highly educated people those people will have more capacity and skills to be part of raising a family to be part of the community and to do all the things that go with being an active participant in the kind of modern country we are seeking to develop. 
We know that education has a great deal to do with the development of that very important area of national identity. This has been an extraordinary area of policy over the last few years with New Zealanders now being excited by the notion that films and music are being made about them developing a real sense of identity in relation to the landscape and the environment and getting a real sense of being an independent group of people in the world. To do those kinds of things we know that people need to be well educated and have a clear sense of the capacity and skill they will need to be able to play the role of Kiwis in the 21st century—in whatever shape or form that might take. 
This legislation is just another part of the reforms that have been undertaken by the Government since its election victory in 1999. Every aspect of the bill which has been gone over by members throughout the House has had various endorsements from different people around Parliament. I listened to the Committee stage debate last week and I thank people like Brian Donnelly for helping to lead the legislation through and for adding to it by clarifying areas particularly around the guidelines for early childhood education. That was much appreciated and I acknowledged it at the early childhood sector conference that I recently talked at. 
I thank the members on the other side of the House including people like Mr Peachey who has brought into the House hands-on recent experience of a large secondary school. I appreciate that kind of debate. I know that we will differ; I know that Mr English who is revving up in his usual way with a glass of water has strongly advocated such things as national testing. This is a dividing issue between people on the opposite side of the House and people on this side of the House who prefer to move down the road of a personalised learning-centred approach to education. We know that Mr English is positioning himself as usual as I said to be revved up around issues like national testing but I think those are good debates to have. There is a very clear difference between the National Party and the parties on the Government side of the House. We on this side of the House believe that we have a progressive agenda. It is good to have someone like Mr English representing the last century so that people can understand that. I am looking forward to hearing the rest of the debate.