Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is subject to correctionHipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 04 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15206. Text is subject to correction.]8.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to theMinister of Education: Is she satisfied that the Government’s educational priorities are leading to an improvement in student achievement; if so why?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Yes although we constantly strive to do better. Why? Because the data speaks for itself: the highest-ever early childhood education participation rate at 95.8 percent; national standards show an overall improvement with nearly three-quarters of our students on average above or at national standards; last year we had the highest-ever number of school leavers achieving the National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 at 74 percent of school leavers; and exemptions have fallen from over 4000 under the Labour Government to just 300 under this Government. Furthermore AndreasSchleicher who is a special adviser on education policy at the OECD and responsible for Programme for International Student Assessment noted in an email to me late last week that many of the school policies that New Zealand is now pursuing are very much in line with the conclusions in the OECD international reportPISA 2012 Results: What Makes Schools Successful?.Chris Hipkins: Why did the Government cut funding for school science and technology advisers and does she now accept in light of our recent plunge on the OECD rankings from 13th to 23rd in science that that was a mistake?Hon HEKIA PARATA: We have introduced a number of student achievement function advisers because we are interested in raising achievement for all. We have focused on maths and science through those particular experts.Hon Trevor Mallard: Answer the question.Hon HEKIA PARATA: We have also introduced the Learning and Change Networks which focus on issues like that and last week we invested $10.5 million into science and maths resources—having answered the question.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question asked—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I do not need the question repeated. I am going to ask the member to repeat the question but to be fair to the Minister it was very difficult to hear the question as it was delivered which may have been part of the challenge the Minister faced.Chris Hipkins: I am happy to speak louder Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: No. What would be helpful would be just to get the cooperation of the member’s own colleagues as the question is asked.Chris Hipkins: Why did the Government cut the funding for school science and technology advisers and does she now accept in light of our recent plunge on the OECD rankings from 13th to 23rd in science that that was a mistake?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Because we decided to put that funding into student achievement advisers who would work across the entire curriculum including in maths science and technology. We also decided that we would target resources to those who need it the most. We also decided to invest in research that told us for instance that 40 percent of teachers do not feel confident to teach science and maths so we are investing to make sure that they do have that confidence and will raise their teaching practice.Chris Hipkins: Why did the Government cut $35 million from teacher professional development in its first Budget in 2009 and in light of her statement yesterday that New Zealand’s decline in OECD rankings was partly due to “under-investment in raising teaching practice” will she now admit that that was a mistake as well?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Under this Government we are investing on average $70 million a year in professional learning and development—$70 million a year. We have also taken heed of what the sector wanted which was to have more of it distributed out in the regions. However in listening to the profession and hearing that it still does not think that it is quite right I announced this week that we would review professional learning and development and are involving all of the organisations that have an interest in it because the profession which we listened to has asked for it.Paul Foster-Bell: How does New Zealand compare with other countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment?Hon HEKIA PARATA: New Zealand remains above the OECD average. The highest-achieving students in New Zealand are comparable with the best in the world. I am sure all of us in this House are pleased about that but there is no doubt that we are now facing an achievement challenge. Fortunately this Government has been working to a plan to address this. The other countries that we benchmark ourselves against Australia Canada Sweden Finland have to varying degrees declined—[Interruption] I am sure that the Opposition members are interested going by their response. Those countries have declined while the performance of education systems in Asia—Shanghai China; Hong Kong China; Singapore for example—continues to rise. This is both a national and global challenge that we can and must rise to and that is why our Government and I as Minister of Education are focused on raising achievement for every one of our children.Chris Hipkins: Why does she continue to attribute our drop in the OECD rankings to the rise of Asian countries when New Zealand has been overtaken by other countries—among them Liechtenstein Estonia Poland Ireland Belgium Germany Austria Australia Slovenia Denmark—or perhaps we should focus a little bit more on delivering a broad and balanced curriculum that might include things like geography?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Because regrettably this is a complex issue. Unfortunately for the member linear single correlations do not actually work here. What the Programme for International Student Assessment data tells us is that there are a range of challenges and we have a plan focusing on each and every one of them.Chris Hipkins: How much money has been spent on the implementation of national standards in primary and intermediate schools and how does that compare with the amount the Ministry of Education spends on teacher professional development in reading writing maths and science?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I do not have to hand the precise figure about the development and implementation of national standards. I do not have that precise figure to hand but what I can tell you is that we invest $304 million over 4 years in the professional learning and development of teachers.Hon Trevor Mallard: I seek leave to table in the House a map showing Europe is not in Asia.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order! Most members have no trouble Mr Mallard in finding a map to have a look at where countries are.