6. Question No. 6—EducationHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 6—Education6. Hon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Minister of Education: Is he confident that schools and early childcare education providers have adequate support to ensure they are safe and feel supported to address the impact of COVID-19?SPEAKER: Well it's not quite what the question said but all right. Away we go.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): Yes although as with any system that has been implemented rapidly and at large scale there's always room for improvement and we continue to identify improvements and make them where we can. The Ministry of Education has been sending out nearly daily special bulletins to early childhood education providers home-based providers and schools and staff with supporting guidance and information to help them reopen and put in place public health measures. We know that some early childhood services wish to change their operating hours during level 3 depending on the needs of their community. We also know that some have decided not to open for physical attendance for a variety of different reasons. The Government understands and has taken a very compassionate approach which will not affect their education funding during this time.Hon Nikki Kaye: So does he accept that there is a proportion of early learning centres—but also potentially schools—that have low attendance because they have some unanswered questions around safety?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The Government's guidance has been very clear that the people who should be making decisions about whether children are attending school or early learning services are their parents.Hon Nikki Kaye: What does he see are the criteria for full nationwide opening of schools and ECE and does he believe that parents and educators should know before 11 May?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Broad guidance for the shift from alert level 3 to alert level 2 when that should happen has already been published and work is under way now with sector leaders to provide further detail on the shift from level 3 to level 2 as we did when we shifted from level 4 to level 3. We'll continue to refine those guidelines based on the feedback that we get from people working in the sector. We'll continue to run through that same process for an eventual shift from level 2 to level 1.Hon Nikki Kaye: In light of his answer yesterday that questions about the analysis of schools impacted by COVID-19 incidents should be directed to the Minister of Health can he confirm that he's had no briefings or asked any questions on these schools?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I listened to the answer delivered on my behalf yesterday and I don't believe that's an accurate reflection of what the Associate Minister said on my behalf. I believe the member's question referred specifically to a case relating to a school and the public health contact tracing measures that were put in place and that is appropriately a question for public health officials. Both myself and the Ministry of Education have been keeping in contact with public health officials to ensure that the guidance that we're supplying to schools and early learning services is based on the very best information possible.Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern: Can he confirm that the Director-General of Health today spoke publicly about the Ministry of Health's intention to look more closely and undertake some research and analysis around the Marist cluster specifically given that one of the more recent confirmed cases was actually someone who has exhibited the symptoms of COVID-19 for a long period of time and that will teach us something about transmission between teachers young people and staff and will be used as the basis of evidence and a body of information for the ministry?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes I can confirm that. One of the clear pieces of guidance that has been supplied to the education sector already is that anybody exhibiting any symptoms at all should stay home and should get tested. One of the issues here was that people who exhibited mild symptoms didn't necessarily follow that guidance and therefore that particular cluster has dragged on longer than it might otherwise have.Hon Nikki Kaye: With regard to the Prime Minister's statements does he accept the criticism that potentially the Government has been slow on the analysis of those schools that had COVID-19 incidents?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: No.