Tinetti JanEDUCATION AMENDMENT BILL (NO 2)First ReadingDebate resumed from 18 September.JAN TINETTI (Labour): I'm delighted to take a call on the Education Amendment Bill (No 2). This is a new experience for me as a relatively new member in the House to see a bill that is cognated in this way and I had to do some research around that find out what that was but I've delighted with the way that this bill has come together. In very simple terms for those people that are watching this back home these are simple changes that are being made to the Education Acts. It's an amendment to the Education Acts. They don't always fit together but they kind of hold hands through the process and all of these amendments are ones that I wholeheartedly endorse but there's one in particular that I would like to talk about. I'll talk about all of them but one in particular that I'm absolutely passionate about. Before I get to that one though I'll talk about some of the other amendments that are in this particular bill—for example the first one is ensuring that the key Education Council decisions are made in the context of Government policy. Now I think that that is a really important discussion that the select committee will have and it will be great to hear the feedback from the different sectors that that impacts upon in that particular way. We haven't had that in the past but I think it is a debate that is worth having. We talk about the work of our key education bodies being in line with Government policy of the day. As I say I think that those particular peak body groups in education need to have that discussion and I look forward to this coming to select committee. One area in this bill that I think is a very good one is requiring private schools to have the same health and safety legislation in place that is required for State schools and State integrated schools. Having been a principal in a State school and having worked in a State integrated school as a teacher the fact that we had lots of requirements around making sure that our schools were physically and emotionally safe places for both students and staff was really really important to the work that we did. In my head it is quite amazing that we actually have part of our sector that isn't falling under that same jurisdiction and doesn't have those same expectations around it that the State schools and State integrated schools do so I think that that is really important. I wonder whether when parents choose to send their children to those private schools they actually understand that the same law is not in place for those particular students. I'm sure that that is something that we will hear a lot about from parents and I look forward to hearing from those parents. I'm sure we'll also hear from those particular schools but I'm excited that we are now bringing those schools into line with each other. I think that that is a really good move in this particular space. Going on to the third part of this particular bill the repealing of the very recent legislation and it was very very recent on the communities of online learning (COOLs)—this is a really important time to be having this debate. I think that with everything that we are debating and looking at and having the conversation about in the education space the communities of online learning are an absolutely important part of that. Now it's only been in place since the Education (Update) Amendment Act of 2017 so it hasn't been in place for very long. It's not going to be a huge disruption to actually repeal this at the moment and it's not taking away from our really big providers our Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu or The Correspondence School—business as usual for them—and our virtual learning networks; business as usual for them. They do an absolutely fantastic job in that particular space and we want to see them continue so we don't want to see the disruption to those providers. What we do want to see is that that legislation is actually fit for purpose for the changes that we are bringing in in this particular space. Well not even so much the changes that we're bringing in but the changes that our public our sector our young people our teachers—all sectors are having the conversation at the moment and actually looking at where we're heading. One of the issues that we've had in recent times—and I go right back to the change from Tomorrow's Schools so when I say recent" I'm then talking about the last 30 years—is that changes to education have been very piecemeal. So we've had one bit happening here one bit happening here and something else happening over here. We haven't had this coordinated approach to education and the COOLs I believe have been part of that particular piecemeal approach. It is timely for us to be having this discussion and it's a timely discussion across both political sides of this House. It is really important that we hear from people and it is really important that we hear from our particular sectors but the one area that I'm absolutely passionate about and that I'd like to spend the last part of my discussion talking about here this afternoon is the cohort entry of five-year-olds. Now I'm absolutely passionate about this because I do believe that cohort entry of five-year-olds has its place. But what I don't believe is that cohort entry of under-fives into schooling has any place in our education system whatsoever. I am delighted that in this bill we are talking about having cohort entry of children on their fifth and after their fifth birthday. I have heard the argument made that we're taking away that right of children to start school at five—absolute no we are not. I take those people that make that argument back to recommendation 13 of the Advisory Group on Early Learning which was in place to the then Minister of Education in 2015 the Hon Hekia Parata. It was an absolutely fabulous report that that advisory group put out. There were absolutely amazingly talented incredibly gifted academic practitioners and academic people on there from the early childhood sectors: people like Dr Joce Nuttall people like Dr Jeanette Clarkin-Phillips—the most amazing academics that we have in this country and we can be very proud of the work that they did.Recommendation 13 in that particular report talked about perhaps having cohort or individual enrolments or a mixture of both. But one thing that that advisory group was very very very clear about and was very clear about to the Minister at the time was that that had to start from five and that there was no place in this country to undervalue early childhood education and have our children starting in at schools younger than five. When our Education Act was changed when cohort entry was introduced to allow children to start up to eight weeks before their fifth birthday this particular advisory group actually contacted the then Minister with their extreme disappointment. They had been the Minister's advisory group and they were incredibly disappointed in the decision that had been made because out of any of their recommendations this was something that they were very very clear about. You could not start—and there was no place in this country for that.The reason I'm so passionate and the reason that I know this advisory group worked so well is that I was actually the schooling representative on that advisory group so this is work that I know inside out. I absolutely know the passion of our top early childhood academics for this particular work and that is why I am incredibly proud that we are actually putting in place the true recommendation that that particular group made to the Minister and to the Government at that particular time.What I do look forward to is us as a Government—and I know that this is happening—working through the other recommendations in that particular report that we haven't quite got to yet. That's not in this particular bill but the fact that we are truly putting in place the recommendation that those particular women—and they were all women; wonderful women and I don't count myself in that actually. I am talking about the early childhood academics who just blew me away with their knowledge and their expertise. The fact that we are doing this today and doing this now and taking this to select committee—I am very proud. I therefore commend this bill to the House."