Power Simon: Urgent Debates — New Zealand Scholarship Examination—Future 
Power Simon: Urgent Debates — New Zealand Scholarship Examination—Future 
[Volume:624;Page:19457] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 Today will be remembered as the day that Bill English won a major victory over David Benson-Pope and that that Minister tried to duck and dive the very serious matters that were raised under his rule as Associate Minister of Education. David Benson-Pope was caught yet again asleep on the job and he made a complete shambles of the New Zealand Scholarship system. It is fair to say that Mr Benson-Pope probably had thrown to him the biggest hospital pass we have seen in a long long time. With that hospital pass came the opportunity for him to stand up and be counted and to take notice of what parents students and educators all around New Zealand were saying about the scholarship examination. But that Associate Minister chose to take the easy route and simply back the lines put in place by Trevor Mallard as Minister of Education. When a new Minister arrives in the office of the Ministry of Education he or she has an opportunity to rethink things to put a different face to the problem and to take time to reconsider issues in a way that might make him look considered and—heaven forbid—in touch with what the education system is going through. But the Associate Minister did not do that and only today has he finally admitted that the Government got it badly wrong. 
The changes talked about today require students to be ranked within subjects. However the point Bill English made in his contribution to this snap debate about the 140 school awards that are still up in the air is an important one. I believe that somewhere in the dark depths of the Ministry of Education is a document that ranks subjects against each other. To me it seems impossible for schools to make decisions about who their top scholar is if more than one student has passed New Zealand Scholarship in more than one subject. In other words if a school has two or three students who have all attained two scholarship examination subjects then who becomes the top scholar for that school? That problem for those in 2004 who did get scholarships has still not been solved. 
 I am highly suspicious about the fact that somewhere in the Ministry of Education someone has made a decision about ranking subject against subject. In other words when it comes to choosing the top scholar from each school the most academic of subjects sat will count for more than less-academic subjects sat. I challenge the Minister to stand in this House and say that no such ranking between subjects exists. I cannot for the life of me work out how it could not possibly be hidden away in there. 
But we should remember what has happened. The Associate Minister has now admitted that standards-based assessment is not an untouchable Holy Grail. For the first 8 weeks that the House has been sitting this year up until 12 o’clock today that is not what he has been saying. He has said that ranks and marks could now be introduced but only after political embarrassment—the hard work of Bill English forcing his hand and 6 weeks of questioning in this House supported by other political parties that shared similar concerns over the way the system had been operating. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: You’re allowed to mention it! 
SIMON POWER 
: I thought it was quite nifty actually. We should remember that on previous occasions the Associate Minister said that standards-based assessment results could not be used to compare results. On 15 February he said: “I would have hoped by now that the member”—no doubt referring to Bill English—“would understand that in a standards-based assessment regime … with lots of variable factors such comparisons between years and cohorts are absolutely meaningless.” That is what he said. Well he has completely changed his mind after considerable political pressure has been placed on him. 
We should go back as my colleague the Hon Brian Donnelly did and remember the intensity of pressure around this issue for the first 10 to 12 weeks of this year because now as we sit on the cusp of April it is easy to forget the intensity of feeling that came from parents and students from all over New Zealand and who went in absolute despair to the offices of members of Parliament scattered throughout the country. I had secondary school personnel from all over my electorate phoning to say: “This is a shambles.” Parents wanted to meet to discuss how they could sort out the mess of the results that were coming through—results that stated “Absent from exam.” when the students had sat the exam and that gave students grades for exams they had never sat. It was a complete shambles. 
I have to say that the class of 2004 were guinea pigs for a shambles of an arrangement that David Benson-Pope had the opportunity to fix when he became the Associate Minister of Education. But he would not do it. He took the word of Trevor Mallard—mistake No.1—and carried on implementing and standing by a system that was doomed to fail. It was only the reports of the lop-sided results and the intensifying pressure from Bill English and others in this Chamber that saw the new Associate Minister of Education David Benson-Pope finally announce a review of New Zealand Scholarship—but not before the Government had moved into a major spin mode and announced that it would intervene to arbitrarily offer a new class of award the distinction award. Well if I were a 17-year-old student sitting scholarship exams in physics history or English the thought of Marian Hobbs David Benson-Pope and Michael Cullen sitting around the Cabinet table deciding whether I was to get a distinction award would fill me with no confidence at all. Neither would it fill any parents in New Zealand with confidence. 
We should remember that during the first two sittings of Parliament this year the galleries were packed with students who had sat New Zealand Scholarship in 2004 and the Associate Minister stood in this House and continued to deny there was a problem. Well I tell him that there was a problem. He was badly wrong. He had an opportunity to correct those matters when he became the Associate Minister of Education. He did not do it. 
There was a major back-down today—a major back-down by David Benson-Pope a major back-down by the Ministry of Education and a major back-down by the Labour Government. There was a victory for common sense and a victory for Bill English. At long last students sitting scholarship exams in 2005 will have some certainty. It is just a shame that the students of 2004 were treated so appalling and with such utter disdain by this Government and by that Associate Minister.