Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeEstimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 21 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5173. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr Jian Yang (Chairperson of the Education and Science Committee):Education is a priority for the National Government because we understand that a key to growing a stronger economy is a skilled creative and productive workforce. A high-quality education is essential for such a workforce. That is why this Government has increased the education budget year after year. Budget 2015 will take total spending on early childhood primary and secondary education to a record $10.8 billion in 2015-16. Along with this increase of funding this Government has also spent a lot of time and effort on encouraging participation improving achievement rates and also fostering collaboration across the education sector.To have a world-class education what we need is not just money time or effort but also a vision and here I would like to congratulate the Hon Hekia Parata. Clearly the Hon Hekia Parata has a vision and has made it her mission to realise the vision. The vision is that in New Zealand every young person in every school every day will get the best possible education so that they can be successful.To achieve that this Government has set a series of education targets—for instance in 2016 98 percent of children starting school will have participated in quality early childhood education. In 2017 85 percent of 18-year-olds will have achieved National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 or an equivalent qualification. We are on the right track to meeting those targets. The national early childhood education participation rate is now over 96 percent less than 2 percent short of the 98 percent target we have set for early childhood education participation by 2016. By 2014 over 81 percent of 18-year-olds achieved at least NCEA level 2 less than 3 percent short of the 85 percent target for 2017. The targets are important because we want to see more kids starting earlier staying longer and leaving with better qualifications. Budget 2015 will consolidate what we have achieved with extra funding such as an extra $74.9 million over 4 years to cover the cost of more children attending early childhood education services than ever before.What we need to realise our vision is not just funding but also modern concepts of education. We have therefore challenged old assumptions and also developed new approaches tailoring what we do to match the needs of our kids. I once followed Minister Parata to visit a school in Christchurch. It was an eye-opening experience. What I saw was a completely new setting of the classroom environment and also a new way of teaching which was totally different from my understanding. Much of the new school environment and also the new way of teaching is based on modern technology. For instance I did not see a blackboard or a whiteboard. What I saw was a big screen in the classroom. Modern technology means more investment in modern infrastructure for schools. Budget 2015 commits a total of $373.9 million to improving our schools’ infrastructure over the next 4 years.I would like finally to say a few words about tertiary education. First of all congratulations to the Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment the Hon Steven Joyce on the wonderful job he has done. Budget 2015 provides a further $112.3 million to boost tertiary education and skills. Thank you.