Mahuta Nanaia: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mahuta Nanaia: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3142. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
: 
 If it is not one thing in education it is another and there is no seed of a doubt in the public’s mind that the National Government’s bungling in the education system is creating a great big mess along the way. 
First we see the bungle from the Government of introducing national standards in our schools. Sure many schools are meeting the requirements of the Ministry of Education but they do not do it because they think it is going to make a big difference to the learning outcomes of children; they do it because they have to. The teaching profession informed the Minister of Education at the time that the testing of our primary school children in reading writing and maths was a narrow measure of learning progress and had the potential to narrow the way in which New Zealand’s rich curriculum could be delivered in our schools and in our classrooms for the benefit of our children. We have since found out that there is a huge variance between schools and within schools as to how the overall teacher judgment impacts on a student’s assessment. 
Parents want to know how well their child is doing while they are at school their rate of learning and what can be done to improve their progress. National standards do not provide the type of information that will help parents as first teachers to progress the learning of their children. It does not work and will not work in the current regime. New Zealand needs well-rounded engaged resilient and creative learners confident in who they are. National just does not get it and it is proving that is the case. 
Today’s classrooms are full of children with diverse learning needs—and the Minister’s response this year? It was to cram them into larger classes. She claimed it would not make much of a difference. Well parents knew that things had got out of control that this Government did not understand what works in education and they mobilised and challenged the Government on that very issue when their children came home from school saying that they might not have a technology science art drama kapahaka music or extension teacher. Parents became really angry with the National Government—some of its supporters. I will not be surprised if they switch at the next election because they know in their heart of hearts—in their heart of hearts—that National is not committed to educating the future leaders of this country and it is showing it does not have a clue. 
Labour tabled research in this House that showed that larger class sizes for our youngest most vulnerable and disadvantaged learners did not improve achievement outcomes. We were clear that we would reverse this silly policy. Well time passed—vigorous lobbying damaging polls—and common sense prevailed and the Minister had to back down and turn round her decision on larger class sizes. That initiative was supposed to make a saving of $114 million over 4 years which was to be used for improving teacher quality. Now the Minister is scrambling around looking for funding to invest in quality teaching. Stump up with the funds Minister. Find that money because we believe that quality teaching does matter and should never have been considered a trade-off for larger class sizes. 
In fact what we should be doing is treating education as an investment portfolio. Get rid of charter school initiatives cap the amount of funding for independent schools reverse tax cuts for the top 3 percent of income earners and there you will have the resources necessary to address the ongoing needs of professional development mentoring and training supports for teachers because great teachers do make a difference but the environment of the school and the classroom matters as well. 
Hot on the heels of this bungle was another blunder. A rush of blood to the head saw the Prime Minister promote league tables. But it would depend on the shape of the reporting so that schools would not be disadvantaged we heard—whatever that means! What does it mean Prime Minister? He was not quick to clarify what the shape of the reporting of league tables will be but he should. League tables and ranking schools based on reading writing and math confirm exactly what the educational professionals thought would happen after national standards. League tables— 
Mike Sabin 
: Why shouldn’t teachers tell parents what’s happening in the schools? 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA 
: That member asks why schools should not tell parents what is happening in their schools. Parents want to know. Many schools will tell that member that they provide plain English reporting to their parents but what is more important is the learning progression of their child not simply that the child did not achieve.