12. Question No. 12—EducationDr LAWRENCE XU-NAN (Green) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 12—Education12. Dr LAWRENCE XU-NAN (Green) to the Minister of Education: What advice if any has she had on the impact of Ministry of Education job cuts on Māori and Pasifika students?Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Minister of Housing) on behalf of the Minister of Education: Job cuts at the ministry are an operational matter. However the Minister has received assurances that the ministry is not making cuts that directly impact services to children. Closing the gap for Māori and Pasifika students is a priority for this Government. That's why I'm very proud today: we've announced $67 million in new funding for the implementation of structured literacy—going back to basics. We are committed to delivering better public services especially for children who are too often let down and left behind by our education system. Take for example Maramarua School which has seen incredible results for their Māori students with structured literacy. In 2021 only 37 percent of their students were at or above curriculum level for reading. By the end of 2023 as a result of adopting structured literacy it was 68 percent. That is evidence-based results for children who need it most.Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan: Has cultural competency been removed from professional development priorities for teachers and if so why?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Sorry can the member repeat that question? I couldn't hear the start of it.Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan: Certainly. Has cultural competency been removed from professional development priorities for teachers and if so why?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: On behalf of the Minister we are putting knowledge back into the curriculum and we are adopting a back to basics approach when it comes to the teaching of reading and maths.Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan: Has the Te Hurihanganui programme team to address racism been disestablished and if so will this work be continued elsewhere?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: On behalf of the Minister I can't comment specifically about that programme but what I would say is the single best thing we can do for underachieving Māori and Pasifika students in our school system is develop a knowledge-rich curriculum and go back to the basics and end the 30-year experiment on our children that has involved experiential learning play-based learning and other such activity that has failed a generation of children when it comes to literacy.Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan: What alternatives will she put in place to bridge the achievement gap between urban regional and rural schools after the ministry's cuts to regional service roles?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: On behalf of the Minister the Minister has made clear her priorities in education which involve a back to basics approach and teaching the basics brilliantly including refreshing the curriculum so it is based on knowledge and facts not nonsense and adopting structured literacy which will be a game-changer for children in urban rural regional New Zealand and indeed of every ethnicity.Tangi Utikere: Kia orana Mr Speaker. How can Pacific communities have any confidence that her Government is adequately resourced to actually understand the specific needs of Pacific learners and their families when she is reducing resources in an area that seeks to meet and understand that specific need?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: On behalf of the Minister because unlike the last Government we don't measure success in education by how many bureaucrats are hired at the Ministry of Education; we measure it by the results that children achieve. If there was a connection between student achievement and the number of bureaucrats in the Ministry of Education we would have seen better results over the last six years. In fact we hired hundreds of extra staff at the ministry including in the specific areas the member talks about and children's results went backwards. We are focused on changing the curriculum going back to basics and redressing the appalling imbalance in results in our system.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Point of order. There is no way that that sort of shouting from the Opposition benches all in concert so that the answer from the Minister could not be heard is in any way remotely acceptable. And please sir if this is going to go on I think we need a new set of rules that those who can keep their counsel are allowed here and the rest are just moved from our Parliament for the time being until they learn how to behave themselves.SPEAKER: Thank you for that contribution. I think you're right: that outburst was pretty much uncalled for. There will always be occasions where answers to questions do offend the sensibilities of the side that might be asking those questions. But we should still behave as respectfully as we possibly can.Tangi Utikere: How does the Minister intend to engage with Pacific communities to actually understand the specific learning needs of Pacific ākonga or does she believe that her one recent meeting with Pacific principals ticks that box?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: On behalf of the Minister the Minister of Education meets with principals and schools and families at those schools and students all the time every week. As she revealed earlier in the week she is in constant contact with principals of all ethnicities—Māori Pacific European Asian and others—right around the country. This is a Minister who gets out and about and does the job and is committed to lifting educational achievement because the single best thing we can do for Pasifika children in this country is have aspiration for them rather than have a poverty of ambition and decide that because they are Pasifika they are condemned to failure. We have higher aspirations for our Pasifika children.SPEAKER: Right let's all just take a big deep breath for what I think will be one of the last supplementaries of the week—Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan.Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan: Thank you Mr Speaker. How does she expect to achieve her priority of stronger learning support for neurodivergent and disabled students when the very roles that help to deliver that are being disestablished particularly the 25 percent cut to Te Pae Aronui?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: On behalf of the Minister of Education services and roles that directly impact services to children are not being cut. There are changes being made at the Ministry of Education but the Government's strong investment in a knowledge-based curriculum delivering the basics brilliantly going back to basics will endure and I believe will make a real difference for young people all around the country.