Parata HekiaEDUCATION LEGISLATION BILLSecond ReadingHon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā otirā tēnā tātou i roto i Te Whare i tēnei pō.[I acknowledge you Mr Deputy Speaker and at the same time us in the House this evening.]I move That the Education Legislation Bill be now read a second time. This bill is an omnibus bill amending nine different Acts. The purpose of this bill is to improve administrative and governance arrangements for educational institutions and entities and funding organisations across the education sector. It also modernises out-of-date legislation to ensure that it remains relevant effective and fit for purpose. Our Government has a clear expectation of an education system that provides for high achievement and a high rate of progress for every student. To support this expectation education legislation must be modern flexible and have an unrelenting focus on the learning and achievement of all children and young people. This bill plays a big part in achieving that goal as will the update of the Education Act that I also intend to introduce to the House this year.I would like to thank the chair and the members of the Education and Science Committee for their diligent consideration of the bill. I also want to thank the organisations and individuals that made submissions on the bill and I want to commend them for taking up the opportunity to have their voices heard on such an important matter. The Education and Science Committee received a diverse range of submissions from both individual submitters and organisations in relation to the bill. In particular submitters commented on amendments relating to enabling a principal to manage more than one school minimum school opening hours tertiary education institution sponsorship of partnership schools kura hourua and the establishment of employment-based teacher trainee positions.The proposal that principals be permitted to manage more than one school and that schools be permitted to vary school opening hours provides schools with additional flexibility. Both of these amendments provide options for schools and their communities to adopt only if they choose to do so. The Education and Science Committee recommended amendments to the bill including enabling boards of trustees to appoint trainees to trainee teacher positions through amendments to the Education Act 1989 modernising the New Zealand Council for Educational Research Act 1972 allowing school boards of trustees to follow a more streamlined process in varying a school's opening times if the variation is for operational reasons and on an occasional and short-term basis and specifying that the power of the State Services Commissioner to approve additional terms and conditions of employment would relate only to an individual employee and not to any class of employees. I am pleased that the select committee has recommended by majority that the Education Legislation Bill be passed with these amendments.The bill introduces a new trainee teacher category. This will enable school boards to employ people who are working towards a teaching qualification through an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) provider that offers a period of employment by a school board as part of its programme. These are known as field-based ITEs. This Government is focused on strengthening the teaching profession as part of a broader strategy to lift overall education system performance. The new trainee teacher category is designed to attract high-calibre students into teaching and to equip them with the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of diverse learners. This initiative is one approach to lifting the status of the teaching profession by attracting a different cohort of recruits from those who enrol in traditional ITE programmes. It seeks to strengthen the relationship between the ITE provider school and student teacher which has been an area of concern across ITE programmes in New Zealand and internationally.I am committed to ensuring that we are getting the best and brightest people into the teaching profession. That was why I was delighted to announce just recently that we are expanding Teach First by another 10 places focused on science technology and maths in 2017. With the extension of a further 3 years this means that we will have 50 newly trained Teach First teachers by the end of 2018. Teach First has been successfully recruiting high-achieving graduates and placing them in secondary schools that need them the most: lower-decile schools and those with large Māori and Pasifika populations.The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER)—in line with the changes that this bill makes the Education and Science Committee has recommended that this bill be amended to modernise the NZCER. These changes to modernise the NZCER Act will establish that the New Zealand Council for Educational Research has nine members that new members are appointed by the Minister or the council and that when appointing new members the council and the Minister must have regard to the skills experience and knowledge that makes up the overall composition of the council. This is a streamlined process for council elections that allows the council to make its own rules relating to elected members.Tertiary amendments—I am also pleased to speak on behalf of my colleague the honourable Minister Joyce about the amendments relating to tertiary schooling policies. The tertiary education amendments strengthen and modernise the regulatory framework for investment in related entities. This change will give the Government access to better information about the investments tertiary education institutions (TEIs) are making in related entities. This will enable us to better support TEIs to manage any potential risks posed by those related entities. There are also changes aimed at streamlining the process for setting conditions on fees charged to domestic education students.Overall work programme—this is a busy Government that is ambitious for New Zealand's future. Education is a passport to the future. This Government recognises that and that is why in this Budget for the first time we are spending over $11 billion in education. That spend is an investment in the future and one that is already paying out with great results. I was delighted to announce earlier this month that more of our young people are leaving school with National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2. The latest data shows that 51299 18-year-olds—that is 83.3 percent—achieved NCEA level 2 last year. That is around 38000 more young people achieving our minimum qualification for success than if the achievement rate had remained at the level it was when we came into Government in 2008. We also have record numbers of children taking part in quality early childhood education. Student stand downs suspensions and exclusions are the lowest that they have been since records began 16 years ago. Since 2008 suspensions have fallen by 40 percent stand downs have dropped by 30 percent and exclusions have fallen by 35 percent but of course we can do more.We need to modernise our education system to meet the challenges of the 21st century and to ensure our young people and children are part of an economy where they can be locally and globally competitive. As part of this work we are reviewing the way that early childhood services and schooling are funded. My goal is to have funding systems based on the size of the education challenge not the size of the institution and on learning growth and achievement of all children and young people. A number of proposals are currently being considered and I look forward to hearing recommendations from the funding advisory group.On the ground we are seeing growing numbers of schools coming together to share best practice to raise student achievement. The number of communities of learning continues to grow and we now have 117 communities which account for a thousand schools and more than 320000 students. Individual communities of learning are agreeing their achievement challenges and making key appointments.The Education Legislation Bill alongside everything that we are doing is designed to lift our education system into one that puts children and young people at the very centre of everything we do in education and it delivers great education outcomes. I now commend the Education Legislation Bill to the House.