Yang Jian: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYang Jian: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10508. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr JIAN YANG (Chairperson of the Education and Science Committee): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the education annual review. As the chair of the Education and Science Committee I am proud to say that the National-led Government is delivering an education system that New Zealanders can be proud of. The Hon Hekia Parata and the Hon Steven Joyce are doing a fantastic job as Minister of Education and Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment respectively. We are seeing great results and outcomes for our children.This Government is committed to ensuring that every young New Zealander has the skills and qualifications needed to successfully participate in the modern economy. Under National the lift in achievements has been astonishing in some cases. This year 98 percent of new entrants in schools have participated in early childhood education. This means New Zealand is in the top third of OECD countries for the participation of children in early childhood education. National introduced national standards in 2010 not only to identify children who were behind at school but also to help parents support their children and to help schools focus on what they needed to do.I am proud to say that projections show that students are on track to surpass challenging educational targets—almost 2 years ahead of schedule. The number gaining National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 or an equivalent qualification for 18-year-olds increased by 3.2 percent to 84.4 percent last year. Since National came to power in 2008 there has been a 24 percent increase in achievement. The lift in achievement has been astounding for Māori and Pasifika students. The number of Māori students gaining NCEA level 2 at school has increased by 33.2 percent to 69.4 percent and the number of Pasifika students gaining NCEA level 2 at school has increased by a massive 48 percent to 75.2 percent. Sixty percent of 25 to 34-year-olds will have a qualification at level 4 or above by 2018.Under National student achievement is real because our plans to monitor progress and lift achievement in education are working such as the Investing in Educational Success programme. We have also seen significant growth in our international education industry—now our fifth-largest export sector—with over 100000 international students in New Zealand. This industry is now worth $2.85 billion to New Zealand and provides more than 30000 jobs for New Zealanders. This shows that parents from other countries have confidence in our education system and our reputation for educational achievement has spread across the world.To ensure that our schools are equipped for the 21st century we have built 30 new schools since 2009 and 2111 new or replacement classrooms since 2010. The National-led Government has also invested $700 million in digital infrastructure and has connected 90 percent of State schools and State integrated schools which is 2282 schools to the managed network. Our next steps for continuing the investment in our education system are reviewing how we deliver special education updating the Education Act and of course investing in the Christchurch education sector.Our unrelenting focus is on raising achievement for all of our students and it is paying dividends. National is delivering an education system that New Zealanders can be proud of. I would like to finish by acknowledging that the lifts in educational achievement are also a result of the hard work of students teachers principals and parents. Thank you.