Tinetti JanEDUCATION (NATIONAL EDUCATION AND LEARNING PRIORITIES) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingJAN TINETTI (Labour): I move That the Education (National Education and Learning Priorities) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Workforce Committee to consider the bill.The aim of this bill is to align the statement of National Education and Learning Priorities more closely with the New Zealand curriculum and provide an aspirational vision for the future of young New Zealanders. The National Education and Learning Priorities were passed as part of the Education (Update) Amendment Bill which did pass into law in May last year. Unfortunately the priorities or the NELP as educators call them are just lacking a wee bit in their language and they don't have a strong alignment with the New Zealand curriculum. It is that that I am trying to rectify with this bill and that is really important because the language is incredibly important for putting our children and our students at the centre and putting our very very strong curriculum in this country back at the centre of learning.Many individuals and national education groups at that time wanted to engage in this discussion and many of them—in fact quite a large number—did submit to the Education and Science Committee back at the time. The concern is that the suggestions that came from those people and those groups weren't reflected back into the documents that came through and the bill wasn't changed at all as drafted. Therefore there was a bit of a disconnect that came between the NELP and the New Zealand curriculum. As an educator at the time I was really disappointed about that because it seemed to be that the NELP put more emphasis on academic success than on the roundedness of the whole New Zealand child of the learner at the centre as the curriculum does. It almost seemed that the NELP took away from the mana for want of a better word of the curriculum and that's a real concern in this country because our curriculum documents are world leading. They are absolutely and simply stunning documents and as educators we never ever got the opportunity to really implement those curriculum documents well before we were bogged down with other administrative requirements such as national standards that were put upon us.The New Zealand curriculum is made up of several documents and that includes the iwi documents as well but the main documents that we have are Te Whāriki which is the early childhood document and then the national curriculum which is made up of The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. So Te Whāriki is underpinned by a vision for children who are competent and confident learners and communicators healthy in mind body and spirit secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society." Not much different to that is the direction of The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa which set the direction for student learning. Although both come from very different perspectives they both start with a vision of young people developing the competencies they need for study work and lifelong learning so that those young people can go on to realise their potential.All three of those documents have been touted as world leading. We get educators from all around the world that come to this country and will say to us what a fantastic curriculum we have from early childhood right through. But I have had people who have asked me why we aren't using that curriculum more and that's where the language becomes really really important. It becomes really important because the over-umbrella education learning priorities in this country need to reflect that curriculum and it needs to be overt for the educators and the parents and the learners in this country.At the time when the NELP were introduced there was a huge concern from people that made submissions to the select committee that the richness of the New Zealand curriculum was being undermined. Again I go back to the point that this is what this bill is aiming to rectify and to add to the richness of diversity in the learning environment. Why was there concern about it being undermined? The concern of it being undermined came with a strong focus on an academic situation in the set-up and in the wording and the writing of the bill. This bill directly aligns the wording with the graduate profile and principles of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa the key competencies of the New Zealand curriculum and the principles and strands of Te Whāriki. This bill has a focus on the whole child and putting the child back at the centre again.Other concerns that this bill works to address which came from the select committee submissions at the time were the concerns around the consultation. At that time when the bill was written up the consultation was—it had to happen that the Minister of the time has to consult but it was with people who the Minister at the time deems to be whom they feel are important to consult with. This bill gives a minimum of people that the Minister has to consult with. First and foremost the Minister has to consult with children and then he or she must consult with national representative organisations of teachers principals school boards of trustees early childhood centres and parents. So the whole idea around that is that we are front-footing any further issues because we're consulting with those people right from the outset and it's really heartening to me that right at the top of that list is children. So once again I go back and I've said it three times now and I say it again: putting the children back at the centre of the learning.Another issue that people had with this bill with the NELP when they were entered into the last bill was that there was concern around minor changes and that the Minister could make minor changes without going back through consultation but it never ever defined what those minor changes were. At the time people were told by the select committee that it was possibly that those minor changes might be grammatical errors or spelling errors but that's never been defined in the bill. So through open transparency this bill rectifies that issue and says that the minor change "is limited to a technical short and uncontroversial amendment that does not change or extend [the] policy of the statement of National Education and Learning Priorities." So it's very clear to everyone what those minor changes would be and when the Minister wouldn't need to go back to consult again.So I'm really happy with the direction that this bill is actually taking the NELP. The NELP were controversial at the time but as I said the sector at the time and the parents wanted to consult in that wider conversation around the national direction that education was going in. So I believe that the changes in this particular bill would address those concerns that those people had. We're not that far away from when we actually put this into the law in the first place so this would be a perfect time to change this to give people a sense of surety around what was happening with the National Education and Learning Priorities.It is good to see that this bill—and I was so glad today to see our Minister of Education the Hon Chris Hipkins announce the Government's extensive education portfolio work programme. And I was really really happy with that because I could see how this bill actually works very well to have those conversations because in those conversations that happen where the public will be invited in to be involved in that work we will be able to have the conversation to help set the NELP. So with that I commend this bill to the House."