Hobbs Marian: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Hobbs Marian: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15024] 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 As I begin speaking to this financial review I want to recount a story. It was the day after the 1996 general election and I had the option of taking up my appointment as principal of Wellington Girls’ College or taking up my seat here in the House. As I walked down the corridor the Prime Minister asked me whether I had made the right decision. When I review what this Government has done in education I know that by being a member of this Government I have achieved far more for education than I might have done if I had spent 12 years as principal of Wellington Girls’ College. We have been delivering policies that make a real difference in education. 
For instance we have delivered 20 hours’ free early childhood education. From July 2006 to July 2007 there were 20000 more enrolments in early childhood education. [ 
Interruption 
] If those members opposite who were diplomats and who have not necessarily worked in education think that that is making no difference to children’s learning and to where society is going then they do not understand the absolute importance of early childhood education in setting up the base for kids to be able to read to write and to be numerate. 
We are building a platform for the future. We want our students to stay at school. We noted what a report from the Education and Science Committee said. Finally a new system was put in place to find out where our truants were. It replaced the old brown cards and those of us who have worked in schools know that the brown cards very rarely followed the students from school to school; they stayed in offices. We did not know where students were. This Government put a wonderful scheme in place; when it first came out it frightened the pants off Opposition members because they came to know the real number of kids who were truanting. Now we know and now the work is happening to get them in school. 
There are several ways to improve the chances for our children. I refer to a great piece of work called Staying at School which is a collection of case studies on how schools are supporting their students to stay. I will give the Committee two examples. Some of the members will know Queen Charlotte College in Picton in the Sounds. It is up against Marlborough Boys’ College and Marlborough Girls’ College two traditional schools. Queen Charlotte College is the only coed school in the area. Sometimes people make sure their kids go to the boys’ and girls’ colleges to avoid their going to Queen Charlotte College. However it is a brilliant school that works really hard at meeting the needs of kids. 
Here is Queen Charlotte College student Melissa in year 12: “In year 9 and 10 I wasn’t into school. I was bottom of the class and I didn’t want to go to uni—I thought it would be too hard. Then in Year 10 I started talking to Ms Wood and researching what I wanted to do.” This is a kid like many of the kids that members in the Chamber understand and know. “Horses are a passion for me so I’m doing equine studies unit standards by correspondence through Telford Rural Polytechnic. The school pays for it with STAR funding. I’ve done lots of standards some even at level 4. I feel pretty good about that. It’s easier studying something I really love. In the future”—and this is a kid who wanted to leave school—“I want to do Equine Studies at Massey in Palmerston North then work in a breeding facility. I’d like to travel and get experience.” This is a kid who without this sort of innovation without this sort of work in schools and without Secondary Tertiary Alignment Resource (STAR) would be a statistic of non-achievement. This is a kid who now has a future. This is Gateway; this is positive. 
We go to the North Island to Havelock North High School. “I go out each Thursday and learn about hairdressing by doing workplace training at Andrea’s Hair Design in Havelock. I also complete theory units at school which are assessed by the Hairdressing Industry Training Organisation. Now I’ve been offered a part-time job and at the start of next year I’ll begin my hairdressing apprenticeship which is for three years. I think it’s really good that the school organises these types of opportunities for us. It’s a lot easier to achieve these things having the school’s help behind you. They’ve been very supportive and encouraging … We’re 7th form now and you’ve got to know what you want to do. So this programme gives you a good heads up on the options.” This is the kind of difference this Government has made. This is building for the future. 
So we come to Schools Plus. What problem was this Government trying to address there? We cannot build our country’s future on low skill and low wages. That is why we need change in education and a quantum leap upwards. At present almost 30 percent of young people leave school before they turn 17 and 40 percent do not achieve a National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 qualification. This Government has achieved a buoyant economy and a strong labour market and unemployment is right down. We therefore need people out there to have the skills to go on. So in February 2007 almost 1 year ago the Secretary for Education was asked to develop a plan for all young people to achieve their potential through education. The Opposition thought this was forcing kids to stay at school. It is not. It is using the school like a base rather like in those two studies of Havelock North High School and Queen Charlotte College I have just given members. It is schools being a base to get kids out there in apprenticeships building on the skills they have building on the strengths that every child has within him or her finding that strength finding that ability and building on it and finding courses. The schools of the future will be the base from which young people begin Youth Apprenticeships obtain work skills and continue with study. We will make significant new investments. 
In education we have been delivering policies that make a real difference: free early childhood education a revised curriculum and truancy. But we are about constant improvement; we are not resting on our laurels and that is why we have 4000 to 5000 more teachers beyond what is required by roll growth we have rebuilt schools and we now are planning for the future with Schools Plus. 
I end by making this comment. This morning I was listening to a discussion from the building industry. People were stating that because the Australians pay higher wages they are probably likely to pinch apprentices from New Zealand—particularly building apprentices. There has been a centre-right Government in Australia. How many building apprentices are in training in that country of so many million more people than us? There are 2000. How many do we have in a country with one-quarter of the population? We have 4500 people in building apprenticeships. That is about building for the future. That is about building an economy. That is where we want to go and that is what we are about. 
Report noted.