English Bill: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
English Bill: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2630] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
: 
 Mr Chairman I ask you to excuse my quiet speaking; I have a touch of the flu and my voice is not functioning as well as it might normally. That does not diminish the importance of the issues that we will deal with in this legislation. We intend to lay down a number of amendments to this legislation because although there are aspects of it that we support—for instance the change in the funding for the regulatory environments in early childhood care—we believe this is an opportunity for the New Zealand education system to take another step forward. 
In that respect National will table amendments in this part that legislate for national standards in literacy and numeracy. We believe that every child and every parent in New Zealand should be provided with the information that tells them what progress is being made in the fundamental competencies of citizenship. At the moment a wide range of testing mechanisms is used in New Zealand schools. Generally they are used in a positive way to lift the achievement of our young people. We do have some instances of national standards already. For instance in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement one of its positive aspects has been the institution of national standards in literacy and numeracy so that someone aged 15 or 16 for instance can get university entrance only if he or she has achieved a certain standard of literacy as defined by the tests laid out there. 
National’s amendments will provide for the maximum flexibility. They will write into the National Education Guidelines a requirement for national standards and also a requirement in the annual reports of schools for a statement in which schools provide an analysis of the progress of students measured against those standards. I emphasise “progress” because it is the progress of the child in which we are vitally interested not the standard or the testing system in themselves. The amendments are couched within the National Education Guidelines because that is where the Minister will determine the national standards. 
I imagine there will be a fairly extensive debate within the education sector should these amendments pass because there will be a range of views over whether it is appropriate to set the national standards at year 4 or year 8—the middle of primary school or the end of primary school—and over just which mechanism should be used for those standards. I myself would prefer that the Minister designate benchmarks within the existing tests because some of those are widely used. Progressive achievement tests and asTTle are well known to teachers and are used extensively. They generate useful data and are understood and often welcomed by teachers. If the Minister designated benchmarks within those existing tests that would meet the definition of national standards as laid down in this legislation. That is why the term is used in the legislation in the plural. There does not have to be one particular standard; there can be a range of national standards. 
Some of my other colleagues will introduce amendments to other aspects of this legislation. I hope the Minister will welcome a sensible discussion in particular around the regulatory regime for early childhood education because we believe that can be improved. The Education and Science Committee looked at that issue in some detail and there is now an opportunity as a result of that reflection to improve the regulatory structure so that we can maintain the variety and the choice of provision in early childhood education. We will also provide an amendment about the use of the National Student Number. We are broadly supportive of the concept but we believe it can be more effectively used.