Hipkins ChrisEDUCATION AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): I move That the Education Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Workforce Committee to consider the bill.This Government is committed to championing a high-quality public education system that provides all New Zealanders with learning opportunities so that they can discover and develop their full potential throughout their lives engage fully in society and lead rewarding and fulfilling lives. We believe in an education system that brings out the best in everybody and that means we need an education system that is as diverse as the learners that it has to cater for. Our goal is to ensure that children and young people and students are resilient creative adaptable have great communication and interpersonal skills and are prepared to work collaboratively as well as independently. The Education Amendment Bill makes a number of key amendments to the Education Act 1989 in support of this vision.In particular the bill proposes to improve the governance of tertiary education institutions by restoring guaranteed places for staff and student representatives on their councils. It will allow the Minister of Education when establishing new State schools to approve an alternative constitution for the first board of trustees. It includes a new offence provision in the Education Act that will deter students from making false declarations about their eligibility for fees-free tertiary education and it will strengthen the quality of schooling and education by removing the provisions relating to national standards and partnership schools from the legislation. This bill also makes improvements to the new strategic planning and reporting framework to ensure that it is workable for schools and kura. The bill also makes a number of minor and technical amendments to the Act including some corrections to the Education (Update) Amendment Act which was passed by the last Government.I turn first to the restoring of staff and student representation on tertiary education institutions. This bill restores the requirement for guaranteed staff and student places on the councils of tertiary education providers meaning that all universities polytechnics and wānanga will be required to have staff and student representatives as full members of their council. This delivers on our pre-election commitments made across the governing parties to ensure that staff and student representatives have a meaningful voice in the way their institutions are governed and it rolls back one of the more Draconian measures implemented by the previous Government to remove that right. Because polytechnics have a smaller total council size the bill increases the maximum number of their council members from eight to 10 to allow for the additional staff and student places. I'm aware that the polytechnics themselves would prefer to have their governance arrangements aligned with those of the universities and that is something that we are willing to consider during the select committee process and I'm sure that they will be making submissions.In terms of the alternative constitutions for school boards of trustees the bill includes a provision allowing the Minister when establishing a new State school to approve an alternative constitution for the first board of trustees. In the case of existing partnership schools which I'll be talking about in a moment this will mean that the sponsors could see greater flexibility in the governance model should they apply to establish a State school. For example a sponsor of an existing partnership school or charter school could have a strong presence on the board and an influence over the school's character and values.The bill introduces a new offence provision to support fees-free tertiary education. The Government's taken major steps to break down financial barriers to post-school education and training by implementing our first year free" fees-free tertiary education policy just prior to Christmas meaning that around 80000 people are now eligible for fees-free post-school education and training. To support the success of this policy the Government requires those who are not easily verifiable—i.e. they don't have a National Student Number for example—to make a declaration that they're eligible to access the fees-free system. The bill proposes a new offence for students who make false representation about their eligibility for fees-free education including a criminal conviction and a fine of up to $5000. This brings it broadly into line with other similar offences in the Act. I note that those who supply false information when applying for a student loan or allowance for example are currently subject to a potential fine of $2000. This is actually a much larger fine although the financial rewards of the potential misdemeanour are roughly the same. It's also important to know that this does not prevent the police investigating fraud and prosecuting for fraud where the penalties could be significantly higher.What this effectively does is it provides a more instant remedy and it also means that students who are applying no longer need to get a JP to witness their declaration. It brings it into line with other recent changes the Parliament has made including removing the requirement for passport applications to be signed by a justice of the peace. So it's about making the process run more efficiently it's about ensuring that there is a more instant penalty regime for those who violate the trust that's being placed in them and it does not close down more serious options should there be intent to rip off the system.The bill removes national standards. This Government has made it very clear that we are committed to ensuring that parents have better information about how their children are progressing in schools. National standards were neither national nor standard. They involved an enormous amount of work for no educational gain. Nine years after the previous Government introduced them there was no discernible improvement in student achievement as a result of them despite the enormous amount of time and energy that had to go into filling in forms to comply with national standards. This Government is firmly committed to more teaching less testing and that is what this does—this bill delivers it. It also frees schools up from the red tape they were wrapped in by the previous Government and allows them to focus on the whole curriculum to ensure that they are giving every young person the opportunities they deserve.The bill provides for the removal of charter schools from the New Zealand education system. This fulfils a clear commitment made by Labour by New Zealand First and by the Green Party from the moment the charter school model was first mooted. The bill does include transitional provisions which means that the repeal of this legislation will not affect existing charter schools that are currently in operation. This bill has no impact on them at all. In parallel with this legislative process we are having conversations with those existing charter schools about how they might come into the public education system and there are a range of options for that on the table.I think it's unfortunate that some members of this House have been encouraging schools not to take part in that negotiation process. They would prefer that those schools closed rather than continued to educate young people. They would rather turn those young people into—well make them into—footballs for their political purposes rather than acting in the best interests of those young New Zealanders. I am aware from the feedback that I've had so far that the operators of the existing charter schools have largely ignored those urgings from the members opposite and are engaging in good faith about how they can continue to deliver education for young New Zealanders and I encourage them to keep doing that. When we said that we were going to negotiate with them in good faith that is exactly what we meant and we are going to live up to that commitment.Finally a couple of quick points: the bill makes improvements to the strategic planning and reporting framework for schools. Last year's Education (Update) Amendment Bill introduced new planning and reporting frameworks for State and State-integrated schools that were due to commence on 1 January next year. This bill sets that back for a further year to allow more time for the implementation of the new system. It also aligns the school's strategic planning process with the election process for boards of trustees. It seems to me that if we're going to have a three-yearly cycle for school boards of trustees then we should also have a three-yearly cycle for their strategic plans so that the democratic process can take its proper course and this bill allows for that.This bill supports a number of the Government's priorities for education. It signals a move towards a new system of reporting that provides a richer and more comprehensive picture of student progress and achievement. It emphasises the Government's focus on investing and backing our State and public education system. It reaffirms the important role of staff and students in the institutional decision-making processes of our tertiary institutions. It supports the successful implementation of our fees-free policy for post-secondary education. Alongside delivering on the key priorities for education throughout the education system it also makes improvements to the strategic and planning reporting framework for schools and corrects a number of other minor and technical errors. I commend the bill to the House."