Yang Jian: Education (Charter Schools Curriculum) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYang Jian: Education (Charter Schools Curriculum) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 14 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7225. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr JIAN YANG (National): This bill goes beyond the stated purpose of requiring partnership schools to teach either the New Zealand Curriculum or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. Clause 5 would apply section 60A of the Education Act 1989 in its entirety to partnership schools. This would include the National Administration Guidelines. This bill thus runs against the purpose of the partnership schools. I will elaborate on this later on but firstly I would like to put the discussion of partnership schools into perspective.We have over 2500 schools in New Zealand and we are opening only a very small number of partnership schools—nine at the moment. We already have a number of different types of schools in New Zealand. I have been working on a New Zealand education handbook. I was surprised by the large number of types of schools we have in New Zealand. There is a strong rationale for having partnership schools. I understand the previous speaker Chris Hipkins mentioned why we have partnership schools. In New Zealand we have the best education system in the world but about 20 percent of the students are still failing in the State education system. We need to help these students. Partnership schools are just one of many ways to help these students. For those who cannot or who do not fit in the mainstream public school system and whose parents cannot afford to send them to private schools partnership schools could be an option.Partnership schools are just one of a number of new initiatives targeted towards addressing the issue of educational underachievement. Partnership schools bring together the education business and community sectors to provide new opportunities for students to succeed in education. Partnership schools are targeted at lifting education achievement in low-decile areas and disadvantaged communities that have been underserved by the education system. No one is suggesting that the State education system should be dismantled. It provides a mostly excellent service. Partnership schools are just one alternative for a small minority of students who are unable to perform in the State system. To make these students successful will of course benefit not only these students but all of us. Internationally there are many successful stories such as Success Academy Charter Schools in New York.Although current partnership schools have chosen to use either the New Zealand Curriculum or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa this does not mean that the ability to offer an alternative curriculum should be removed from the Education Act 1989. Preventing that would prevent new partnership schools from having the freedom of choice. This would also reduce the ability of parents to make the best choice in schooling for their child. The bill expresses concerns that students will be delivered narrow and low-quality curricula. It also comments that subjects such as science may be distorted to fit the beliefs of school owners. There are safeguards in place regarding quality in both the Education Act 1989 and the partnership school contract. Given that the nine partnership schools are using the New Zealand Curriculum or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa these concerns do not seem to have any merit. Thank you.