Parata HekiaEDUCATION (UPDATE) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): I move That the Education (Update) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Science Committee to consider the bill. Our Government has a clear expectation of an education system that meets the educational achievement challenge for every child and young person. The update of the Education Act 1989 along with the review of funding systems will provide a framework for an education system focused on student achievement and progress that is given expression through communities of learning schools kura and early learning centres. The changes this bill proposes will put student progress and their learning environment more firmly in the centre of education legislation. The underlying drive for this update is a more flexible and innovative education system a system that serves all our children and young people. This bill will help to encourage and enable cooperation creating a system where teachers and principals can focus on inspiring our young people rather than being distracted on to administrative tasks.The current Education Act 1989—the Act—focuses on how schools are run rather than on student learning and achievement. It currently provides little guidance to schools on what education success or student well-being should look like or how schools can best meet parents' expectations. The Education (Update) Amendment Bill makes the most significant changes to the Education Act since it was passed 27 years ago. It is consistent with the fundamental principles of self-management established by Tomorrow's Schools but is being amended in a way that signals my expectations of collaboration between education providers for the benefit of children and young people.This bill is also about equipping students with skills and qualities they need to thrive in an increasingly complex global and digital society. It is about giving students the information they need to successfully understand and navigate the opportunities that are available to them through education and into the world of work. When we consulted on the update of the Education Act 1854 submissions were received. In addition hundreds of principals members of boards of trustees representatives of national organisations students parents family and whānau as well as other members of the public attended workshops and presentations held throughout the country. Throughout the wide range of views expressed the common theme was the importance of education to providing better personal economic and civic outcomes for our children and young people.The Act as it stands is focused on the administration of schools and is not explicitly focused on the learning of children and young people. This bill will bring the achievement and learning of children and young people to the centre of the early childhood education and compulsory schooling parts of the Act. This includes for the first time setting out in the Act what New Zealand's education objectives are and how communities of learning early learning services schools and kura can contribute to and are accountable for achieving those objectives. These objectives will inform a statement—the National Education and Learning Priorities statement—issued by the Government of the day setting out what is important to that Government for education.This bill strengthens accountability and reporting in the education system. It will ensure that school boards know what they are required to do and are focused on what is most important: children and young people and their learning and educational outcomes.Most schools in New Zealand are doing a very good job already but a small number need extra help from the Government. This bill creates additional interventions to enable faster more tailored responses when schools are struggling to ensure the achievement of all children and young people. It will allow a Government to step in earlier to assist schools with minimal intervention to support operation of schools and to protect the education and welfare of students.One of the most important contributions this Government has made to the education system is introducing communities of learning. These communities of learning are made up of education providers including early childhood education schools and kura which track an end-to-end pathway through a neighbourhood or a particular kind of education. They come together to raise achievement for children and young people by setting shared learning and teaching objectives based on evidence and working together to achieve them by sharing expertise in teaching and learning and by working together to ensure a child's journey through the entire education system is successful and no longer truncated by only sectoral imperatives.I am pleased to advice that more than half of New Zealand schools are now working together in communities of learning with 148 formed to support more than 410000 children and young people. For these schools kura and early learning services that have formed communities of learning—and for those who wish to join—this bill will further support them by providing an enabling framework for the evolution of communities of learning. This bill allows for the formalising of agreements among members of a community of learning which will support that community to explore shared packages of support. This will allow teaching professionals to focus more on what only they can do: the magic and the core purpose of causing learning to happen and raising student achievement.This bill will enable those schools that wish to to enrol new entrants in groups at the beginning of each term rather than on their individual birthdays provided that the school or community of learning has consulted with their communities first. Many primary schools have expressed interest in adopting cohort entry requirements or arrangements for new entrants suggesting that it would enable them to better manage the transition to school simplify school and classroom planning and minimise disruption for existing new entrants.Regular attendance at school or kura is a significant factor in student achievement. To establish good attendance habits the Act will be changed to make attendance at school and kura compulsory once children have started should they choose to start before the age of 6.This bill will also update aspects of education law that have become outmoded and inefficient. It will update and streamline the legislative framework of the State integrated schools by transferring the provisions of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 into the Education Act by improving the way enrolment schemes are managed and by updating Part 12 of the Act relating to the opening closing and merging of schools.This bill will create a framework for online learning making it easier for students to study online. Online learning gives students more flexibility more personalisation and more options about what and how they learn. This bill will let students choose whether to study some subjects or all of them online as an alternative to face-to-face education as a supplement or as a complement. It also provides an innovative digital option to engage students who may be struggling in the traditional school environment. New providers will be able to enter the market as accredited communities of online learning and a wide range of potential provider types can seek accreditation.The bill establishes a Competence Authority in the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. This will improve the time it takes for competence complaints to be resolved. The Competence Authority will ensure that these complaints are dealt with by professional leaders who have expertise in relation to teachers' competence while allowing the council to focus on all of its other strategic governance.The bill will increase the effectiveness of the New Zealand careers system to help drive improvements in achievement for all learners. The bill will achieve this by disestablishing Careers New Zealand and creating a refocused careers service within the Tertiary Education Commission. This will consolidate in one place all of the careers information that users need enable better integration of the online careers planning tools that are currently offered by the Government and establish clear lines for accountability for the delivery of careers services. It will also enable the Government to better incentivise connections between educators and employers and ensure that students are supported to successfully transition to further study and employment.The Act has been amended in a piecemeal way over the last 27 years. We have the opportunity to undertake the necessary updates to provide a more coherent framework that meets the needs of communities of learning early childhood and schooling environments now and into the future. I now commend the bill to the House.