English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:633;Page:4547] 
8.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: What is his response to the recent report identifying “the 25 top-performing high schools” in the Auckland region and has he received any communications from parents about the usefulness of the report? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I have not read it and no. 
Hon Bill English 
: Does the Minister agree with this statement in the article: “With no reliable official data publicly available to rank schools choosing the best one for your child is a hit-and-miss affair.”; if he does agree why does he not open up the SchoolSmart website so that parents can get reliable official data? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I remind the member in case he was not listening that I said initially that I have not read the article so I cannot comment on that particular matter. 
Hon Bill English 
: Well you should have. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Actually I do not spend all my time reading magazines as the member obviously does. To the second question the answer is no. To the third—although I am required to answer only two—the answer is that the SchoolSmart site is available to parents who approach their schools and I know of no parent who has been turned down. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Actually it is only one supplementary question that Ministers are obliged to answer. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: What is the Government doing to assist parents to make informed choices about their child’s schooling? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The Government provides a wealth of information and advice to parents through local schools the Education Review Office the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website Team-Up and the Ministry of Education. We will shortly publish a helpful guide for parents outlining questions they should ask schools when making decisions about their child’s schooling. The Team-Up website is being further developed to provide useful and usable data for parents. I also intend to do substantial new work in this area on behalf of parents and will make announcements in the relatively near future which may settle “Mr Angry” on the other side of the House. 
Hon Bill English 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. It is a breach of the Standing Orders to refer to a member in anything other than respectful terms. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The member took offence. Would the Minister please withdraw and apologise. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I withdraw and apologise Madam Speaker. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Is it not correct from what the Minister has heard about it that the  
Metro 
 article reflects the conclusions of the academic study by Professors Harker and Nash of Massey University in 1998 that showed that when we rank schools on value-adding we arrive at league tables totally different from those based simply on the results of one-off national assessments as espoused by the National Party? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Both Mr Harker and Mr Nash are former colleagues of mine and their work is recognised all around the world. Both of them would agree that league tables assume that students are randomly assigned to schools and can therefore be directly compared. Both would say that that is utter nonsense and that is why league tables are a waste of time. 
Allan Peachey 
: What reassurances will the Minister give to the parents of those students attending secondary school in Auckland who are studying for the Cambridge International Examinations that their young people are in fact attending some of the very best schools in New Zealand? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: If I understand the member’s question correctly the answer is that students are free to study for the Cambridge exam if they would like to but parents will find that in order to succeed in this system it is necessary for their child to succeed in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) an assessment process that is now I think winning the support of the entire education sector. I note for example that St Cuthbert’s one of the private schools that is often used to reference other schools applauds NCEA. 
Allan Peachey 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I refer you to a discussion you had earlier with the House and ask that the Minister actually reassure parents. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why did a Ministry of Education official by the name of Bruce Adin release some of the data from the SchoolSmart website to  
Metro  
magazine in order to help it identify the top-ranking schools; and if the ministry can release data to  
Metro 
 why can it not release it to parents? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I have no idea why Mr Adin—whoever he is—acts in the way he does but parents can get access to the SchoolSmart site simply by talking to the school and then receiving that information in the context of the school which is the best way to get it. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why did the Minister tell the House some months ago that the School Trustees Association was one of a number of education groups that agreed that the SchoolSmart information should be kept secret when in fact the School Trustees Association has asked him and the ministry for access to that information and has been turned down? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I did not say that anybody was asking that it be kept secret. What I said was that education groups agreed that this information should be accessed through the school as the best way of doing it. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister aware that my request under the Official Information Act to open up the SchoolSmart website sat in the Ministry of Education for some weeks which then returned it to me and asked me to ask him and that it is now sitting on his desk overdue; when is he going to answer it? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: As soon as I can.