Parata Hekia: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 06 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10866. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker otirā tēnā tātou huri noa i tō tātou Whare.[Thank you Mr Speaker and indeed greetings to us throughout our House.]I am delighted to stand and participate in this debate because Budget 2013 has been the fifth Budget in a row in which we have seen our Government put its money where its mouth is which is into education unlike the Opposition. There have been five Budgets since we have been in Government and in each of those Budgets we have raised the investment in education. The amount of $9.7 billion—$9.7 billion—reflects a 74 percent increase in early childhood education investment—Dr Megan Woods: Why did you cross out the date on the Manning proposal?Hon HEKIA PARATA: —which the Opposition loves to rant on about but actually this Government does stuff about it. We have 95.5 percent—Dr Megan Woods: Why did you change it? Why did you let that community down?Hon HEKIA PARATA: If Dr Woods would care to listen instead of ranting she might learn something and it is that in early childhood education we have invested $1.5 billion in Budget 2013. That is a 74 percent increase. A shipload of money has gone into early childhood education in the last 5 years and it has had an effect. We have seen the numbers of kids participating in early childhood education increase to 95.5 percent—Hon Maryan Street: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am not certain but I think there was some unparliamentary language used a moment ago—Hon HEKIA PARATA: Shipload.Hon Maryan Street: Shipload? Thank you for clarifying that for me.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): It had me confused as well. I can understand where the member was coming from.Brendan Horan: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Sorry Mr Horan. I did not see you at the back.Brendan Horan: I was going to suggest that perhaps our Te Reo could help there and it could be a waka-load.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): That is a frivolous interjection designed to break up a speech. If it happens again the member will get a yellow card.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Ā tēnā koe e te Mana Whakahaere. Mehemea tērā mema e pīrangi ana ki te whakarongo i roto i Te Reo Māori ka mōhio mai a ia kei te kōrero ahau mō te kaitā o te pūtea mō te mātauranga.[And thank you Mr Speaker. If that member wanted to listen to what is being stated in the Māori language she might understand that I am talking about the funding for education being massive.]I hope we have illuminated that point of view. This is a great Budget generally and specifically for education. New Zealand has a world-class education system and it is top performing for most but not for all. This Government is ambitious for each and every New Zealand child and young person. We are not happy with averages of four out of five in the case of Māori one out of two and in the case of Pasifika two out of three. We want it to be the situation that five out of five young people do well in the New Zealand education system and are able to step out powerfully and strongly on the next step of their lives.This Government understands that the long-term sustainable remedy for unemployment for any young people but certainly for the higher levels of unemployment amongst Māori and Pasifika is an excellent education. That is what we are dedicated to delivering and that is why we have a Better Public Services set of targets of 98 percent of young people being engaged in early childhood education in 2016. We are at 95.5 percent and that has occurred off the back of investments that have increased by 74 percent since we came into Government and cast our first Budget in 2008-09.In the secondary area we have a Better Public Services target of 85 percent of 18-year-olds securing National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 in 2017. We know that business as usual would not get us to 85 percent. We are ambitious. We are aspirational. We mean what we say. We want meaningful qualifications for every one of our 18-year-olds. On the current trend we will not get there and that is why we are investing. We have increased the investment into the compulsory sector by 30 percent in the five Budgets that we have passed. So again we are investing. In 2013 we have over 500 million new dollars being invested in education. Together with the contingencies that have been provided that is $1.04 billion over the next 4 years in early childhood education in secondary education and in the secondary-tertiary transition space. I have talked about early childhood education but the story gets even better in secondary schooling.We know that our education system as I have said is a world-class education system. It is seventh on the Programme for International Student Assessment. Disaggregated New Zealand European Pākehā or Palagi are second in the world. That is magnificent. It tells us that our education system is extremely capable of performing for the majority of students. However Māori are 34th and Pasifika are 44th. We are unique in the 65 countries measured in the Programme for International Student Assessment in being both top performing and having the lowest equity. Our Government is not going to do what members on those Opposition benches did in the 9 years they were in Government which was publish reports and wring their hands. What we are doing is focusing on how we get a lift across the system for every one of our students. Too many of those being left behind are Māori or Pasifika come from poorer homes or have special educational needs or permutations thereof. We are not prepared to sit on the sideline and say: “Oh well that just happens.” No we are focused on how we raise achievement across the board.We are doing that in education in the secondary and primary area by investing in national standards. The most comprehensive data said we can participate in samples but this Government had the courage to say: “No samples are not enough.” We need to know how each and every child is doing in our education system. We will have year 2 of national standards data this year It will be better than last year’s next year’s will be better than this year’s and we will continually improve as we have done in NCEA and in other parts of the education system.We know that the two in-school contributors that make the biggest difference to education are the quality of teaching and the quality of education leadership. That is why in this Budget we have put nearly $40 million into a quality teaching agenda. We know that we have to invest in raising quality and by the way $340 million over the next 4 years is going into professional learning and development. We need to both attract the best and the brightest into the profession and make sure that the 82000 who are already in the profession are constantly getting the opportunity to improve their skills through professional development so that they can as the chief review officer said so simply yet so profoundly cause learning to happen and know that it did. Our system relies on that happening for each and every child.One of the biggest challenges we have is the diversity we have within schools not so much the diversity between schools. Therefore that means the quality of teaching can be very variegated within schools and we have to address that. These are all the hard issues that this Government is addressing and we are doing it by putting money where it will make the most difference. We are putting it where it will be most sustainable. So the quality teaching agenda is a very big part of that.But we also know in particular for Māori students that on average they do better in kura kaupapa than they do in mainstream. We have to address both. But one of the things that this Budget has done is invest in over 280 scholarships to recruit kura teachers into the kura kaupapa stream—that is teachers who are capable and excellent at both speaking and teaching in Te Reo Māori. It has the highest attrition rate. Teachers who go into kura last about 3 years because it is so tough teaching in that area yet it turns out the best possible results for Māori students. So we have recognised that—the first Government to do so—and are investing in that area. We have also recognised that mentoring and support to keep kura teachers who are already in kura kaupapa there and we have invested $12 million in how to support them.We have also recognised that out-of-school requirements are needed to help students do better whether that is homework centres or whether that is one-on-one mentoring. So we have invested nearly $6 million into mentoring.Parents—parents are the unsung heroes and heroines of our education system. It is parents who make sure that their kids value education that they get to school each day and that they have the understanding that doing well at school will set them up for a very good life. Parents are the people who people our 2500 boards across the country. There are 16600 parents who volunteer every 3 years to be on the boards of trustees of schools. We have recognised that and in this Budget have made an 85 percent increase in the funding for school boards and for volunteers to give them the skills and tools they need to be successful.Finally we have also recognised that communities have great initiatives about how they can engage with their schools so that students stay at school—because obviously if you are at school you are going to do more learning than if you are not—and how we can ensure that when they are at school they are well behaved and they are learning and their fellow students can learn. So we have put into this Budget an initiative fund of nearly $2.5 million which will respond to communities having ideas about how we can get stronger engagement.The three things that make the most difference to the quality of education that a young person will have in school are the quality of teaching and the quality of leadership—and we have invested in this Budget in those—and out of school the strength of parental and community engagement and we are investing in that. We used an evidence base. We have increased funding in this Budget for schools by 30 percent and for early childhood education by 74 percent. This is a great education Budget. I am very proud of it and of the Minister of Finance for recognising the absolute criticality the importance of education. Thank you.