Parata Hekia: Address in Reply — Presentation to Governor-General 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parata Hekia: Address in Reply — Presentation to Governor-General 
[Sitting date: 28 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:596. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson. Tena tatou te Whare. Tena koutou katoa. I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of my colleagues here today. I would like to congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker on your reappointment to the role. I would also like to welcome all members of the House to this the 50th Parliament of New Zealand. It is a privilege to be addressing you today as the Minister of Education. I have long been passionate about education and as Minister I am keen to make a contribution.  
 New Zealand is a First World nation it has First World aspirations and we must have a First World economy in order to deliver on those aspirations and education is a critical contributor to this in two ways. It builds the social and cultural capital of our country and of our society and it contributes to the economic growth and productivity of our economy. Education is the key and that is why it is so important that we ensure that all learners in the New Zealand education system have the opportunity to do well to the best of their potential and their ability. We know that we have a system that has many world-class features we know that we have a system in which there are many world-class practices and we know that we have a system within which we have many world-class practitioners. The challenge for us is to ensure that rather than having the present situation where four out of five students are being well-served by our system—we are an aspirational Government; we want there to be brighter futures for all New Zealanders—we have five out of five students doing well. We want to have a system that supports them to do well and allows them to realise their full potential so that they are equipped for the 21st century with the skills the education and the learning that means they can navigate that with success for themselves and for their families. 
I am pleased to say that our education system has been recognised internationally. One recent OECD report called the Programme for International Student Assessment which we know as PISA told us that New Zealand’s best students continue to compare favourably with all the best students in the rest of the world and that is something we wish to maintain as a country. A second report that has recently been released by the OECD—as recently as last Friday in fact—comments on the evaluation and assessments framework of 24 countries and commends New Zealand for its coherent national agenda and for the way it has invested in evaluation and assessment all the way through our system. It talks about the successful work that we have done in embedding the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and the moderation within and between schools. It talks about the good work that the Education Review Office has done in its assessment of schools and yes it talks about and commends us for the introduction of national standards and encourages New Zealand to continue to implement this because it will continue to provide information in plain language for both the schools and the parents of children in schools—and that is exactly what we intend to do. Why? Because we are committed to raising achievement by and for all students in our system. 
We have a twofold challenge. In those parts of the system that are working—and those are significant parts—we have the challenge to continue to raise that as well because we are not a Government that rests on its laurels. We want to see ever-greater improvement and ever-greater achievement and attainment because we want smarter faster more nimble New Zealanders to be capable of positioning New Zealand well in the international economy and to be able to see and take the opportunities that their perspicacity will deliver to them. We must continue to raise achievement to that end. At the same time in those parts of the system that have consistently under-served cohorts of our population—Maori Pasifika and children from low socio-economic backgrounds—we need to change the system in that regard so that it will perform better for them and in so doing continue to raise the performance of the rest of the system. 
So the overriding priority of this Government is to raise achievement and we recognise that that begins at the earliest years of life. That is why we have committed to 98 percent of all 0 to 5-year-olds having early childhood education before they enrol at school. We know that across the country we have an average of 94 percent but again for Maori and Pasifika students and for those from low socio-economic homes they do not have the same level of participation. We are dedicated to seeing that rise because we know that children who have had quality early childhood education will enjoy a stronger educational trajectory as they transition into the compulsory sector pass through that and on into the tertiary sector. So we will continue to invest in early childhood education. As the Prime Minister said in the House earlier this afternoon we have invested the most ever in this sector at $1.4 billion and we will continue to support the success there. 
In primary schools what national standards have done for us is allowed us to focus on how we can raise the quality of learning interaction between the teacher in the classroom and the student engaged in that learning experience. It is important for the student it is important for the teacher it is important for the school and it is extremely important for their family and community to know how well their child is doing what their child needs in terms of support and how the school might provide that. But equally important is how the family and community can support that as well. We are very focused on those vulnerable times of transition between early childhood and primary school and from primary school into secondary school and we want those transitions to be made confidently and happily so that the student will continue to learn. The way that that will occur is to have an unambiguous unrelenting focus on the learner at the centre of the system and I want to make it very clear that in my time as Minister of Education I will be unrelenting in the focus on the learner. I will champion the education sector because I appreciate that it is populated by very committed very talented teachers and by other parts of the education profession. They deserve our thanks and support but also they deserve our expectation that we will continue to raise achievement and attainment not just for those who are already succeeding but also for those who are not well-served in the system. 
We have focused a lot of effort and my colleague will shortly speak with more authority and comprehensivity about the tertiary part of the education sector but one of the bridging mechanisms that this Government has introduced is the Youth Guarantee because we recognise that young people need to have available to them options choices and pathways that clearly guide them towards opportunities to enter the labour market to be employed to start their own businesses and to be able to make good choices and have good life chances in terms of what it is that they can achieve not only for their families but also in contributing back to this country. In that regard this Government has invested $1.5 billion in ultra-fast broadband. To date we have invested a further $160 million so that schools can link up to the ultra-fast broadband and we are about to invest a further $300 million to $400 million in the Network for Learning because we recognise that our young people need to be able to navigate a digital environment. So we will be making available to them a 24/7 e-learning opportunity and we will be supporting schools to ensure that they are able to take advantage of this technology. 
We are working with whanau in the teaching workforce and investing in professional learning and development because we know that the quality of the teacher in the classroom makes the most difference to the learning experience of the student and that is where we will put our investment and support—it is with the teacher. 
We are also interested to ensure that a world-class feature of our education system is the governance—the self-managing boards of schools—and that it is also fit for purpose in the 21st century. We are keen to continue the conversation I have begun about what further refinements we might want to look at in terms of boards. 
Finally I want to reiterate this Government’s commitment to Canterbury. Canterbury is a resilient stoic community in which in respect of education almost every school has suffered some kind of damage or challenge as well as every early childhood centre. We are working with Canterbury to identify what the opportunities are for not only recovering and restoring the education network in Canterbury but also taking advantage of the opportunities to see how we might position for the 21st century. Thank you for the opportunity to participate. I am honoured to be the Minister of Education and I look forward to reporting to this House on continued achievement by all New Zealand learners. Kia ora tatou.