Parata Hekia: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10515. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Ā tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker otirā tātou huri noa i tō tātou Whare.[And so greetings to you Mr Deputy Speaker and at the same time to us throughout our House.]I am very pleased to be able to take a call in this annual review and to talk about the progress that has been made in education generally as well as specifically in early childhood and secondary education and as my colleague Minister Upston talked about in adult education. New Zealand has a wonderful education system and it has served generations of New Zealanders very well. One of the truly inspiring dimensions of our education system is our willingness to recognise that we cannot be complacent about what we have got that we have constantly got to be building on it paying attention to what is not working and being courageous about making changes that will effect greater and better outcomes for all of our kids.Our Government has taken up that challenge. We have set ourselves Better Public Services targets that make us publicly and transparently accountable for what it is we are doing. We understand that at every point in the education journey—as my colleague Todd Muller said the whole-of-life journey of his children of all our children of our grandchildren and of all young New Zealanders. So we have focused on early childhood and said that based on all of the evidence and just common sense we need to ensure that most if not all of our early learners have the opportunity of a strong start in education.We led the world in developing an early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki and it is our challenge to make sure that every kid gets the opportunity to experience the learnings under Te Whāriki. So we set ourselves a target that 98 percent of all kids starting school by the end of 2016—this year—would have participated in early childhood education. We are at 96.4 percent as of the end of last year so we still have a way to go but we are very focused on that. At primary school we now have really good information emerging from national standards as well as the richer information that teachers routinely gather to inform their practice to make sure that they are undertaking what the former Chief Review Officer of the Education Review Office Dr Graham Stoop said is the core business of schools which is to cause learning to happen and to know that it did—to cause learning to happen and to know that it did.Under this Government we have built PAI the Public Achievement Information framework which gives us real measurable evidence on how well learning is being caused to occur for which children and whom we need to target resources to to ensure that those who are most at risk of underachievement get the best chance possible. We have seen that data incrementally improve each year as well. At secondary school level as a number of speakers have already acknowledged this evening we have seen tremendous growth—perhaps more than we even anticipated so much so that in respect of our Better Public Services target that says that 85 percent of all 18-year-olds by the end of 2017 have at least our minimum qualification of National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 we know that at the end of last year we were at 84.4 percent. So we are 2 years ahead on that target.And here is where I would like to find unusual concourse with the Opposition spokesperson for education: it is really important that it is a meaningful qualification. I absolutely agree—no argument there whatsoever—because we want to ensure that those 80 credits that young people have do come together in a coherent fashion that allows them to step out on the next part of their educational journey whether into employment whether into workplace internships whether into more training whether into higher academic studies and that they do so on the back of a very strong minimum qualification. NCEA heralded a profound shift in our culture in New Zealand because what it did was move away from what many of us in this Chamber tonight experienced which was the rationing of educational success. In order for some of us to be successful the system was predicated on others not being successful. NCEA is a profoundly democratising qualification because it anticipates that anyone—everyone—can be educationally successful at any time in their lives.I recall that when it was first introduced I arrived back at Wellington Airport from Ruatōria—when I say I arrived back in Wellington I was coming from Ruatōria—and I remember getting into a taxi the font of all local wisdom. I said to the driver: “What do you think of this new qualification?”. He said with disdain in his voice: “I don’t like it.” I said: “Why is that?”. He said: “Next minute anyone could get a qualification.” I thought that captured right there this idea that we had inculcated in ourselves through the system we did have that we had to ration educational success. The idea that anyone can be successful is I think an absolutely valuable part of who we are as New Zealanders. So those “anyones” are increasing under this Government.Overall we have seen increases. For Māori we have seen them improve as we have said to just under 70 percent. That is good but it is not great and there is still work to be done. We have seen Pasifika grasp the opportunities and climb even higher. That is good but that is not great and we have got more work to do. This Government is absolutely interested in every child. Whether they are most at risk whether they come from homes where they get strong support every child can grow into their potential. That is the challenge to our education system and it is one that I as Minister of Education am absolutely and relentlessly committed to. We know that that occurs mainly through the quality of teaching and leadership in school through the strength of family and parents and whānau involvement with their kids’ education outside of school and through the expectations we hold for each and every one of them. And that is free. We can just have high expectations and it costs nothing but the effect it has on young people is extraordinary so we need to keep holding those high expectations.We have invested in the Communities of Learning which are whole-of-pathway approaches. The great thing about this policy is that no school loses anything. It does not lose its unique identity. It does not lose its roll. It does not lose its address. It does not lose its teachers. What it gains is the opportunity to collaborate over the transition pathways between early childhood and primary primary and secondary and secondary and tertiary. It also means that we can systematically invest in collaboration between our professionals who under the most recent OECD report indicated that we have in our education system one of the highest levels of professional integrity in the world. It is not something we are surprised about because we know that we have a very trusted profession but we have got to constantly push them as well to improve their practice so that all kids can routinely be successful.We are currently consulting about legislation in the update of the 1989 Education Act. It has been almost 30 years since the tremendous reforms under Tomorrow’s Schools were introduced. We know now what the strengths of those are and we know also what some of the weaknesses are. We need to maintain the strengths—self-management local decision-making parents involved in their children’s education—while also overcoming some of the weaknesses which are from the very extreme competitiveness where we see resourcing going to the size of the roll rather than to the size of the educational challenge. We in Government are very focused on how we do that and we are not leaving behind those most vulnerable. We spent all of 2015 looking at the update of special education provision and we now have got going 22 projects across New Zealand to ensure that those kids who are most vulnerable who have the highest need whose parents want the best for them every day—how can our system more routinely make it easier more accessible more timely and more supportive? We are doing all of these things. We are trying to make sure that every child gets the very best opportunity under this education system.Members of the Opposition also talked about what we are doing in terms of iwi. Although the member may be aware of 11 iwi in fact the Ministry of Education has 56 iwi partnership arrangements. Each of those is different as it should be because iwi are interested in particular as well as common things. We are working with them across the country. In addition we have invested in 16 Pasifika PowerUP Plus stations where we are working with Pasifika communities: Pasifika churches Pasifika sports teams. We have absolutely understood that we need to go to where the kids are. We are seeing success and we want more of it. Kia ora.Reports noted.