8. Question No. 8—EducationHon JAN TINETTI (Labour) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 8—Education8. Hon JAN TINETTI (Labour) to the Minister of Education: Does she stand by all her statements and actions?Hon ERICA STANFORD (Minister of Education): Yes—in particular the actions that I took earlier this year to support the roll-out of NCEA level 1. On becoming the Minister of Education it was very concerning to find that the implementation of NCEA level 1 standards had been rushed without providing key components to teachers like subject learning outcomes or external assessment exemplars. After being contacted by subject associations and teachers who raised their serious concerns this Government took immediate actions to produce subject learning outcomes for all level 1 subjects and we managed to get this work done with the help of those subject associations so they were delivered to teachers at the start of term 1. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) exemplars were not going to be released until May this year when much of the teaching would have already taken place. On becoming the Minister I instructed NZQA to urgently expedite the availability of all level 1 exemplars and exemplars for science standards were available before the start of term 1 while other subjects will become available through February and March—much earlier than the May deadline. This Government wants students to succeed and we have stepped in to ensure teachers have the tools they need for NCEA level 1 which the previous Government failed to do in their rush to implement.SPEAKER: I'll just say to the Minister that that was an exceptionally long answer and I appreciate it comes probably from the ministry and that it's not unusual for them to write long documents like that—but the Hon Jan Tinetti. Hon Jan Tinetti: How many schools are currently facing cuts to building projects?Hon ERICA STANFORD: I'm pleased the Minister—oh the ex-Minister asked that question. On becoming the Minister it was very concerning to find that there was an enormous pipeline of school build projects that were not able to be delivered on. Schools had had their expectations raised buildings costs had skyrocketed there were properties that were being designed with bespoke arrangements and architecturally designed buildings schools had had their expectations raised and there was poor communication. I'd like to just point out that the Minister herself said in a recent article: You've got schools that have been really suffering and suffering for quite some time"—that is the point. This has been ongoing and left to us by the previous Government and now we're having to come to a point where this Government are having to tidy up a list of schools that I am still coming to grips with the total number.Hon Jan Tinetti: Does she stand by her statement: "You know it is and it's part of that is the increasing costs of building but part of it is because we are building these extremely bespoke classrooms rather than just going 'Look here is option A option B and option C.' " and if so is she aware that the Ministry of Education currently has a modular-building programme and off-site classroom construction options with a suite of standard designs introduced in 2018 helpfully available on the ministry's website for her reference?SPEAKER: Yeah well that's one all on the question and answer isn't it—so the Hon Erica Stanford.Hon ERICA STANFORD: Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm pleased that the member asked that question. The point is that the ministry are only just at this point in time starting to roll that out. The pipeline that we are dealing with—that runs into the billions of dollars—includes architecturally designed classrooms that teachers have spent many hours outside the classroom dealing with and many many classrooms in that pipeline are in exactly that position. I have now directed the ministry to make sure that we have repeatable modular designs that we can save on these costs rather than these architecturally designed classrooms that blow out budgets. Hon Jan Tinetti: What does she say—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Hang on a minute—hang on a minute. The rules are no talking while a question is asked—some of your colleagues were speaking then. Hon Jan Tinetti: What does she say to James Hargest College principal and Secondary Principals' Association of New Zealand executive member Mike Newell who when asked about the property cuts said that "no one seemed to know what the priorities were or [had] been able to sit down with the new minister. 'So that's really frustrating that we have a new education minister in there and we're unsure of what [her] priorities are.' "?Hon ERICA STANFORD: I have sat down and had multiple meetings with the property team to try and get to the bottom of how it can be that we have such an enormous pipeline of raised expectations that this previous Government was unable to deliver on. I can assure that Minister that I am across the detail and getting to the bottom of this enormous enormous mess that they have left that we are about to clean up."