5. Question No. 5—EducationERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 5—Education5. ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of Education: Does she stand by her statement that my bottom line is to ensure our young people are getting the education they need and deserve" and does she believe the 85 percent of year 8 Pacific students who are not achieving at curriculum level 4 or above in maths according to the 2022 NMSSA data are getting the education they need and deserve?Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Defence) on behalf of the Minister of Education: To the first part of the member's question yes. To the second part: the data the member refers to shows effectively no overall change since 2018 which was just after the National Party were in Government. It shows that educational performance for all students has remained steady overall despite the tremendous disruption of a global pandemic. There has been a very longstanding gap in performance between years 4 and 8 and this is more pronounced for Pacific and Māori learners. Measures to address this historical level of performance were disrupted for two years because of COVID. However Government efforts to address that disruption for Pacific students included free Wi-Fi and in some cases devices in homes—and free catch-up tutoring sessions which saw Pacific students double their initial credits by the end of the programme and gain 9138 credits. Right now we're firmly in the recovery and we're focused on boosting Pacific achievement. Just recently we have for example delivered new equity funding: that's $75 million in this year's Budget to give additional funding to schools where learners face the biggest barriers to academic achievement. Secondly we've rolled out the tapa whā cultural competencies framework for teachers of disabled learners because we know that culturally appropriate education is more effective and we're redeveloping the curriculum to make clear what learning needs to occur and when. It's about supporting teachers to teach and giving parents confidence in their child's progress and achievements.Erica Stanford: Why is it that despite all of the efforts the Minister has just outlined the number of Pasifika students achieving at curriculum for maths has dropped by 40 percent in the last four years with nearly 86 percent of students behind by the time they reach year 8?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I think the member is—on behalf of the Minister of Education—being somewhat selective in her comparisons. I referred in my answer to the primary question to the historical gap in performance between years 4 and 8 including for Pacific learners. That gap was present throughout the entirety of the national standards framework—it did not change one bit. That is why when this Government was elected every effort was made to address that gap; it was disrupted by COVID. Efforts were made during COVID through things like the provision of free Wi-Fi but the problem with that was that even though we could get Wi-Fi—and we did for about 40000 homes—30 percent of homes were Pacific homes and many of those homes didn't have enough devices for all of the children to do all of their learning. So it's not surprising that the gap has widened somewhat but I can tell you that every effort is being made to address that now and to catch up that learning. Erica Stanford: At what point did the Minister realise that her Government's actions to minimise the impacts of COVID on low-decile learners were not working when the latest data from 2022 shows 83 percent are failing to meet curriculum for maths in year 8 a drop of 25 percent from 2018?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: On behalf of the Minister of Education of course what we realised on being elected to Government was the complete failure of the national standards framework to delivering effective learning and so we set about correcting that. We then had the disruption in calendar years 2020 and 2021 to learning and so we started the recovery in 2022 at the very time this survey—the latest survey—was taken. It was obvious that that survey was going to pick up an ongoing gap but the Ministry and indeed the Government right up to the Cabinet level have continued efforts and we will continue to be unrelenting until we close that gap and we'll do better than that member and her party. Erica Stanford: Can the Minister explain why not one single cohort of students improved in their maths performance at the end of year 8 in 2022 despite six long years of this Labour Government?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: On behalf of the Minister of Education that is the most absurd and ridiculous question I think I've heard given the information now available to that member. I am happy to take that member through it again. This Government on being elected made it a top priority to address the abject failure of the national standards framework and did so. The recovery efforts were disrupted for two years in 2020 and 2021 by COVID and the fact that much learning was disrupted—many classrooms were closed for extended periods of time. The recovery process for that started in 2022 at the very time the survey took place. Every effort is taking place. That is why there has been extra funding for more tutoring. That's why there has been more funding in this year's Budget. On behalf of the Minister of Education I am very proud of what this Government is doing to recover learning for this cohort.Erica Stanford: Is there any maths achievement data that the Minister can quote to show that any of their education initiatives have any positive impact given that tier 1 data released this week shows every group going backwards and by her own admission in this House that the e-asTTle data shows no improvement in mathematics in our primary schools?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: On behalf of the Minister of Education I don't know what it is about that member and her party where they've suddenly forgotten that there was a pandemic that caused disruption to this country but most importantly to education for two years—the year 2020 and the year 2021. So it's not surprising that the survey taken in 2022 is going to pick up the impact of that disruption on that learning. That is why remedial efforts were taken in 2022 and more remedial efforts are being taken this year funded out of this year's Budget with the additional $75 million targeted for that reason.Erica Stanford: Point of order Mr Speaker. I was quite specific in my question about whether or not the Minister could point to any data that shows any improvements.SPEAKER: And that was absolutely addressed.Erica Stanford: What does she say to parents in our low socio-economic communities with 83 percent of their kids failing to meet the curriculum standard in maths by the end of year 8 a 25 percent drop in four years who are now on average 2½ years behind the students from high decile schools?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: On behalf of the Minister of Education the first thing I would say is that when the National Party uses figures they can't be relied upon because they get it wrong. And the second thing I would say is we take seriously the impact of the disruption of COVID on learning over the years 2020 and 2022. And that's why when it comes to education we have made it a priority to put in place measures to recover the lost learning. We did it in 2022 and we're doing it in 2023. That's why we funded extra tutoring. That's why we're funding extra support for teachers and for schools: to make sure they can support those communities where the learning has slipped."