Douglas Roger: Education (Board of Trustee Freedom) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Douglas Roger: Education (Board of Trustee Freedom) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:665;Page:13027] 
Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS (ACT) 
: 
 I start by thanking the Maori Party for its support in relation to this bill. It is appreciated. The fact is that centralised management and funding of schools have put the Government in a wholly conflicted position not only as provider but also as purchaser and regulator. It has resulted whether or not we like it in schools with poor teacher motivation bored children and falling standards while education spending has increased dramatically. I think everybody in this House agrees that good teachers are the most important factor in whether children benefit from school. Teachers determine whether children get quality education; much more than the curriculum the class size funding computers or the Internet. These are all secondary to having quality teachers. 
One of the things that I learnt when I was doing the work as part of the working party on school choice was that it did not matter whether children went to a decile 1 school or a decile 10 school; the principals told us that more than anything else their desire was to train their own teachers. They wanted to train their own teachers because they felt that the quality of teachers who were coming out of the training school was not high enough and they wanted to have pay flexibility so they could reward and retain the quality teachers. 
There is evidence whether or not we like it of system failure in the education system. We have a system that is failing to teach the basics to children. We have a system that allows 20 percent of school-leavers to be functionally illiterate. We have a system that allows around 25 percent of school-leavers to be functionally innumerate. In South Auckland this year a decile 5 or 6 secondary school tested the maths of the 13-year-olds who were coming in. One of the sums was “subtract 27 from 36” and 23 percent of them—one child in four—got it wrong. 
If we claim that we have an education system that will set this country up for the future we are very wrong. It also fails the disadvantaged children. We have a school system that discriminates against the least well-off and particularly in the big cities. That does not need to be the case. 
There is a well-documented case of a school in Australia where 87 percent of the parents of the children attending the school were on a benefit. Those children were 20 percent behind the performance of the average Australian child. It was so bad that the Department of Education told the principal John Fleming to go and fix it. He could appoint whoever he wanted and what have you. Seven years later that school had an average recording of 20 percent above the average in Australia. So do not tell me these kids cannot learn. They can learn if we give them the right environment. They can learn if we give them the right motivation. That principal of the school where 87 percent of parents of the children attending were on a benefit turned round the children’s performance from being 20 percent below the average to being 20 percent above. It can be done. 
It is an absolute disgrace that we allow kids not to learn. I think the Maori Party and the leader of the Maori Party know that with some freedom concentration and motivation they can do it. I have seen it in Maori schools in New Zealand. A school out of Gisborne is doing a fantastic job with the right teachers and motivation. But we want to have one system and we will never have one system that fits all.