Henare Tau: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Henare Tau: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2631] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I too want to congratulate the people who have been behind some of these amendments. I would like to cut to the chase as it were and speak about the National Education Guidelines and the amendment to insert new clause 5A that the Hon Bill English is moving to amend section 60A by inserting after paragraph (b): “(ba) national standards which are standards for literacy and numeracy applicable to all students in an age or year group:”. 
 How can it be that we should not be supporting this? In a modern world we need to know how our kids are doing in literacy and numeracy first and foremost. So it goes without saying that we should have at least something in the Act something in the regulations that this auspicious organisation here—the Parliament of New Zealand—sets out. But have we got that? No we have not. We do not have any guidelines. We do not have any standards of literacy or numeracy—the two key things that have allowed young people through the ages to get on in life make choices have options in front of them go ahead go to work have families bring up their children and so on and so forth. Literacy and numeracy are the two things that make a nation full of educated people go on get jobs and do the things that we take for granted. We owe it to these young people to make sure that there are standards for literacy and numeracy—and that they are applicable not just to some but to all age groups. 
So we in the National Party do not have any reason to believe that we should not be supporting these amendments from the Hon Bill English. It is absolutely crucial that we do. We also say upfront that we will be supporting the Maori Party’s numerous amendments. It goes without saying for me especially that we should take on board the Maori Party’s amendments in terms of the use or the finished use of Maori land given over for educational purposes. I think that that is an honourable stance and we will certainly be supporting that. 
There are others issues that we must debate during the Committee stage. Section 317 in clause 43 deals with early childhood regulations and we will be getting to that later on. I can tell the Committee that we will be supporting the amendment from the Maori Party essentially for one reason and one reason only. Many people in the Maori Party and the National Party have had experience in running early childhood centres. They have had operational experience in kohanga and the like and we know that at the end of the day if there is one thing we can do to inhibit a young person’s education it is to throw more regulations at the centres. If more and more regulations are thrown at the centres then all that the teachers and the people who run the centres will be doing is walking around with a clipboard making sure that their regulations are covered and checked off. By the end of the day when they have finished all the bureaucratic nonsense the children at the centres—whom we are all supposed to be there for—will not be educated in any way shape or form. 
There is a need for standards and there is a need for regulations but over-the-top bureaucratised and sanitised places of learning will not do anything for the young people or for our communities.