Hipkins ChrisCHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): We need a different approach to the way we deal with education in New Zealand an approach that is not about narrowing the focus of our education system but one that is about widening the scope of our education system one that rejects the standardised homogenised version that the National Government has of childhood and children to one that recognises diversity and individuality and that kids develop different things at different rates and they have got different strengths and weaknesses.The standardised approach in New Zealand has failed. It has failed spectacularly and we know that because the one peer-reviewed overseas study that we focus on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)—and I think we focus on PISA far too much—spectacularly demonstrates our tumble down. We get worse in every study.So let us look at the numbers in the PISA study that the Education and Science Committee was presented with. In 2006 before the National Government we were fifth in the world for reading and we are now 10th. We were 11th in the world for maths and we are now 21st. We were seventh in the world for science and we are now 12th. But what is more concerning is that it is not just the rankings that have gotten worse in all of these; the average test scores of New Zealand students have declined in every PISA study since the National Party became Government. So it is not just that other countries are getting better; we are actually getting worse. As I have said I think we focus too much on PISA but it is the one comparator the one benchmarking study that we can look to in order to see how we are doing and the results are not good. I think that that is concerning.It is also concerning that the Government crow on about National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and the increased achievement of NCEA when I think that is one of the greatest acts of deception and dare I say it fraud of any Government when it comes to talking about student achievement in education because the Government does not care about how students achieve their NCEA. It does not care if the credits that students have accumulated to get their NCEA qualifications lead them to nowhere as long as they get a level 2 qualification so that the Government can say: Tick. We hit our target." If NCEA achievement is so much better under this National Government why are fewer students getting university entrance and why are more students ending up on the dole doing nothing or are "neets"—not in education employment or training? Those numbers are going up; the numbers of students getting university entrance are going down despite the fact that NCEA achievement is improving.We know that there is a massive socio-economic disparity in the way that NCEA achievement is made up. Students in poorer communities—Māori and Pasifika students—are more likely to be directed through pathways of learning for their NCEA that lead them into low-wage low-value jobs. That is the stunning reality of this and we should be taking that seriously. Simply saying that qualification achievement rates are going up and that that is all there is to it is not enough. It is an act of deception. These kids are not being equipped for the world beyond school and that is something that the Government needs to focus a lot more attention on. It is simply not fair what the Government is doing to those kids and I think that it is not good enough.School operational funding has been frozen under this National Government. The result is that 13000 schools around the country get less money this year than they got last year because of National's funding freeze. We have a teacher supply crisis in this country because National has not been dealing with teaching issues. We have got a support staff problem because support staff are not being paid what they are worth they are not being looked after and as a result we simply do not have enough people working with kids to meet their learning needs. Parents are paying more and more for their kids' education even though it is supposed to be free because the Government simply is not stumping up with the cash.In early childhood education (ECE) the picture is equally grim. The National Government and the current Minister of Education's predecessor Hekia Parata have boasted about the fact that they have cut $523 million out of early childhood education by reducing the funding rates. It was one of the first decisions National made when it became the Government and it has resulted in a $523 million cut from early childhood education. Despite the fact that all of the research tells us that the more money we put into ECE the better the outcomes in ECE and the better the kids do all the way through the rest of the system and later on in life the first thing the National Government did was to cut funding for that. It has abandoned its commitments to improve the ratio of teachers to children for the under-twos. Remember that? That was its headline commitment in 2008 and it has done nothing towards it. It has cut quality by cutting the number of registered qualified teachers in early childhood education. It is a sad state of affairs. It is one that the Government needs to do a lot more about. I do not think there is much hope of it happening under National."