8. Education National Standards—RemovalHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of EducationEducation National Standards—Removal8. Hon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of Education: Will National Standards be scrapped within the next 12 months and will he guarantee that any new replacement system will be in place for all schools prior to removing National Standards?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): The new Government intends to honour the commitments made by the Labour Party the New Zealand First Party and the Green Party to scrap national standards and replace them with a requirement for schools to report progress to parents against all levels of the New Zealand curriculum. The timetable for that is yet to be confirmed by Cabinet.Hon Nikki Kaye: Will schools that want to keep national standards rather than shift to a new system be forced to remove them by the Government; if so why?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In answer to the first part of the question no.Hon Nikki Kaye: Will he commit to ensuring the current national standards requirement of at least twice-yearly reporting to parents will remain?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: We've been clear that we won't be proceeding with national standards but we will still require regular reporting to parents—I would think at least twice a year.Hon Nikki Kaye: How can New Zealanders have confidence in this Minister when he said that national standards will be gone quickly he has no time line he doesn't know the costs according to other comments that he's made he hasn't developed the detailed system—Mr SPEAKER: Order! To the question please.Hon Nikki Kaye: So why can New Zealanders have confidence given that he doesn't know the detail of what he's replacing national standards with?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I do have a time line. The member didn't listen to my answer. Cabinet is yet to sign it off.Raymond Huo: Why does the Government intend to abolish national standards?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Because they are neither national nor standard. Analysis by the Ministry of Education found that they incorrectly measure the achievements of four out of every 10 students. Less than a third of children who were judged to have met the maths standard for their age had actually met that standard. Clayton Mitchell: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In the answer that we've just had by the Minister we had a constant barrage coming over here from your left-hand side and it didn't get picked up by the Speaker. I was just wondering what the ruling is with regards to that barraging from the Opposition side. Mr SPEAKER: People are allowed to interject during answers. That's OK you know and I thought it wasn't nearly as loud as some other times that I might've been involved myself. Hon Tracey Martin: Can he confirm that prior to the introduction of national standards in 2009 parents received report cards at least twice a year based on the curriculum and the educational advancement of their children? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes I can confirm that. In fact schools have had a range of resources and tools available to them over an extended period of time to report progress to parents that were significantly more reliable than national standards.