Tolley Anne: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Tolley Anne: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:654] 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I move  
That the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. This bill delivers on two promises that our Government made to the New Zealand public during the recent election campaign. Those promises were first of all to amend the Education Act 1989 so that the Minister of Education could set national standards in literacy and numeracy; and secondly to amend the Education Act 1989 to increase the current fines for parents of truant children from $150 and $400 for first time and repeat offenders respectively and to allow the Ministry of Education to take prosecutions. 
This bill gives the Minister of Education an explicit power to set national standards in literacy and numeracy. These standards are not set in this legislation and they will be set next year after consultation with the education sector. The standards will apply to State schools and will apply to students in years 1 to 8. I think that what has been lost completely on the Opposition in the debate around this legislation is the fact that parents overwhelmingly voted for this policy. I have spoken to parents all around the country and they want to know in clear plain English how their child is going in mathematics reading and writing and how their child is doing compared with other children in their year group. Parents saw that this was National Party policy they voted for it on that basis and that is why I am proud to see this legislation being passed through the House today. 
I am also greatly looking forward to going around the country and telling parents that Labour voted against national standards. Labour had the opportunity to vote for a real change in our education system—one that focuses on excellence and aspiration—but instead Labour members went for the partisan and ridiculous decision to vote against literacy and numeracy standards for some of our youngest New Zealanders. 
This policy will see standards set which this legislation allows the Minister of Education to do. It will see students regularly assessed against these standards using a range of assessment tools currently in use. The policy will see parents receive reports on their child’s progress in plain English. It will see school boards include in their school charters the board’s priorities and targets for assessing students against the standards. And it will see schools report on this as part of their normal planning and reporting processes. Good assessment data is an important tool to drive school improvement. Assessment information helps teachers to see whether students have mastered the intended learning ensures that students are aware of their own progress and ensures that parents are able to monitor how well their children are doing. 
At a system level assessment information can provide parents communities boards of trustees and the Government with an overview of the performance of the system of particular schools and of specific groups of students. Schools are increasingly using new more sophisticated assessment tools to track student achievement. The data generated has the potential to provide rich information to teachers students parents and boards of trustees about student progress. Despite the availability of these assessment tools the Education Review Office reported in March 2007 that 56 percent of schools reviewed at that time were not using worthwhile achievement data when setting targets in their charters. This Government’s focus on literacy and numeracy will provide a backbone to allow students to fully enjoy and excel in the wide variety of other subjects they will study at primary and secondary schools. But the focus also recognises that English and mathematics are international languages and that it is not good enough for children not to get the best possible start in these disciplines. 
Secondly this bill honours our promise to raise the fines for parents who deliberately allow their children to be truant and allows the Ministry of Education to take prosecutions. It is scandalous that on any given day more than 30000 students are likely to be absent from school. The maximum fine for a first offence is currently $150 and the maximum fine for a second offence is $400. This bill raises the maximum level of fines to $300 for a first offence and $3000 for a second or subsequent offence. Parents also commit an offence if they fail to enrol their child at school and the level of fine for this offence will be raised from $1000 to a maximum of $3000. The $3000 is the maximum level of fine. Judges will still have the discretion to consider a number of factors when deciding the level of fine to impose. Let me again assure members in this House that prosecuting parents is a last-resort intervention to be used for persistent unjustified and parent-condoned truancy. Prosecution is for when all other alternatives fail. But we know from a streamlined truancy prosecution trial that prosecution and the threat of prosecution does work to help get children engaged in school again. The bill will also allow the Secretary for Education to take prosecutions either to assist the school by taking the prosecution or to act when chronic parent-condoned truancy is identified and a school does not take action. 
I am extremely proud to see this bill progress through the House. I believe that it begins the task of raising standards of achievement and attendance in New Zealand schools. If members believe in standards in education if members believe in providing parents with clear and easy-to-understand information about their child’s achievement and if members believe that children who are currently falling behind in literacy and numeracy should be given the opportunity to achieve at the level of their peers then I urge members to vote for this bill. I commend the bill to the House.