Tinetti JanJAN TINETTI (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. I'm delighted to stand here today to talk about the Estimates that were presented to the Education and Workforce Committee but I would really like to focus my time here this afternoon on Vote Education. It's really heartening to be part of a team that is looking at a positive and forward-thinking approach towards education. The lack of foresight and planning and the ad hoc approach by the previous Government left major holes in the education sector that left a number of people working within that sector feeling very dispirited and it's good to see now that we are prioritising a way forward and a way out of those holes and really looking positively and doing forward thinking around where we're heading in the education sector.One of the areas that we've put a lot of funding into—and we heard the Minister of Education talk about this in his presentation in the Estimates debate—is in the learning support services. I don't think there is anyone in this committee who wouldn't have heard when they go round schools and early childhood centres how hard it is to deal with children who have additional learning needs because of the lack of resourcing that has been available to them and how that has diminished over time. It is heartening and really exciting to see that this Government is putting so much resourcing into the learning support area—over $43 million. Now it's easy to roll those figures off the tongue but what that means is extra learning support services to over 7500 additional children—7500 additional children are going to get additional learning support services. That is significant. Only yesterday I was in early childhood centres and schools that actually thanked me for being part of the team who are delivering those services to children. They are excited but they also know that that is only the beginning. They know we have had to prioritise. They know that there is still a way to go and we know that too. It can't be an overnight fix. We know that we have to do a lot more in this space but we really really had to show that we were making a commitment.One of the aspects that is really exciting that came in the Minister's Estimates hearing was that we heard about how the ministry has begun the learning support update. We know that this isn't just about putting more money in because when you've got a system that's completely broken—because nothing's been done or very little's been done over time—you're actually not going to fix it by just keeping on putting that money in. We know that we have to rethink and the Minister talked about how that work is being led by the Hon Tracey Martin in her Associate Minister of Education role. He's confident that over time we will see significant progress being made towards the fantastic findings that came out of the November 2016 Education and Science Committee report findings in the areas of dyslexia dyspraxia and autism spectrum disorders. That is so exciting in those areas to think that we will be the Government that will be able to make the significant progress and an absolute difference for those children. It's exciting to hear about the review of the New Zealand education system and as part of that the review of the NCEA and the commitment to removing national standards. I heard that so much yesterday. In fact I went to a school where they said We asked our parents if they wanted us to continue reporting with national standards so we put a survey out to those parents." This is a big intermediate school. Over 90 percent of parents came back and said "No way. We want you to actually report on the progress of our children. Reporting on national standards told us nothing." And the teachers said to me yesterday and have continually said to me over time "Thank you—thank you for having faith in us and knowing that we know our learners and that we know the progressions and where they're going to." It's exciting work that's going ahead. There is so much to talk about so much that came through that Estimates hearing and it's so exciting to see the way forward that we are heading in. Thank you."