SpeechDr PARMJEET PARMAR (Chairperson of the Education and Workforce Committee): Thank you Madam Chair. As the chair of the Education and Workforce Committee it's a pleasure to take this call and summarise the Estimates hearing—the 2020-21 Estimates for Vote Education Vote Education Review Office and Vote Tertiary Education.As we have just one Minister for the whole education portfolio the Hon Chris Hipkins he appeared for all these Votes within Vote Education before the select committee and we went through several topics. The select committee noted that in Vote Education the appropriation sought in 2020-21 for Vote Education totalled approximately $13.941 billion. In that the allocations breakdown is nearly $9.977 billion for educational services from schools; just over $2.617 billion for services from the Ministry of Education; nearly $1.172 billion for capital expenditure by the Ministry of Education which related mainly to school sector property; nearly $52 million for allowances scholarships and awards for students teachers and trainees; just over $89 million for other educational services; nearly $55 million for capital expenditure for Crown entities and schools; and there was a capital injection to the Ministry of Education that was of nearly $593 million.In the Vote Education Review Office the appropriation for 2020-21 is $34.7 million; for Vote Tertiary Education the appropriation totals $3.54 billion which covers tuition subsidies and reserves for tertiary education organisations first year fees-free study Tertiary Education Commission funding and funding for services from Education New Zealand funding for tertiary scholarships and other awards services from the Ministry of Education and establishing a single national vocational institute.During the select committee process the select committee focused mainly on primary and secondary schooling and tertiary education in that there were several topics that were discussed. In primary and secondary schooling a wide range of topics were discussed and the main focus was on COVID-19—how primary and secondary schools responded to COVID-19 and especially during that time when we went from level 4 to level 3 and the kind of confusion that was caused because of that. So the Minister responded to those questions which were asked by the select committee. We also dealt with the communication with schools from the Ministry of Education during COVID-19 and according to the Minister the communication was quite good and it was quite frequent.The other thing which we really focused on was our preparedness for future events. This was in relation to a college in Auckland where a cluster was identified. The committee wanted to understand how the Minister saw that the ministry would be prepared for such incidents happening in the future. There was a focus on personal protective equipment (PPE) as well because PPE is something that is talked about a lot. So it was noted during the select committee process that if there was any decision made around use of PPE in schools that will be based on apolitical or psychosocial kind of decisions not actually a public health response—that was the response given by the Minister.Then digital delivery during COVID-19 was a very important topic that was discussed during the select committee process in the Estimates hearing. This was in regard to the survey that was done in 2018 which identified that 52 percent of schools had 25 percent or more of their students without home internet access. So we discussed the dispatch of modems and laptops that was done during that lockdown time and we also discussed missed delivery of these modems. The Minister's response to that was that it was important that the equipment is available as soon as possible rather than sitting and making sure that the data is accurate. We also asked about how many of those modems had been returned; we were told 404 modems until that point were returned but the latest data wasn't available.And then in this limited time if I quickly jump on to tertiary education one topic that was discussed was Massey University's science degrees issue because we also have a petition on this issue before the select committee. The Minister's response was that it doesn't reach the Minister's threshold to intervene. Wide-ranging topics were discussed in tertiary education as well. Fees-free was another focus and student hardship and international students were also discussed during the Estimates hearing in the Education and Workforce Committee. Thank you Madam Chair.