Delahunty Catherine: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Delahunty Catherine: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5624] 
CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chair. Tena koutou katoa. The Education and Science Committee discussed the appropriations with the education Minister a few weeks ago. During that discussion I asked the Minister some questions about national standards. I was trying to find out what need the Government was trying to address. The question I asked was whether the Education Review Office had reported that schools lacked the tools for assessment or whether it was that schools were not consistently applying those tools. The Minister gave me some confusing answers telling me that there were assessment tools already and not all schools used them and that we did need national standards. I have been talking to teachers and parents and listening to principals’ comments about this issue. Many of them are wondering what problem we are trying to fix although everyone agrees that plain English reporting to parents is a pretty good idea. But what are we trying to measure through these standards that we do not have a way of finding out already? How well a child is progressing or how close to the top of the league table his or her school is—we pressed the Minister as to whether these were hurdles or progress indicators and she said they were both. 
The Green Party finds it quite strange. If we ask teachers now they can tell us now who is doing well in their classes and who needs extra help. They already have the assessment tools to do that. As the Canadian teachers union says they know what the cows weigh; they are more interested in feeding the cows. That particularly rural image is not necessarily appropriate for our children but I get what it is saying. Let us get on with pouring our creative energy into helping our children explore the world and their connection to it. We do not need more publicly available measuring between the young and diverse learners. We need smaller classes and better professional development in public schools and kura kaupapa. 
National standards could be a huge waste of money. However they pale in comparison with the Budget priority which gave $35 million to private schools. I asked the Minister why she cut some important educational programmes for public schools and community education and gave that funding to private schools. I asked her that because the Green Party is very concerned that the measure of a safe and successful society is reducing the gap between the privileged and the poor not increasing it. Many of us have been to visit some very nice private schools and we have seen beautiful data projectors well-stocked libraries and heated swimming pools where students in wetsuits learn to kayak. We have seen the small classes and the wonderful array of qualified staff offering many options to students. Let us not pretend that public schools do not also attract wonderful teachers but they do get ground down by large classes and tired resources. 
A teacher colleague of mine told me that some weeks more than six young people will come with a note from home and a look of shame and tell her that the reason that they have no shoes is that their family cannot afford to buy them. This happens in the Minister of Education’s home city of Gisborne. Meanwhile $35 million is going to private schools to enhance the privileged. If one reads the “Bunnythorpe address” which was recently delivered by Heather Roy of the ACT Party one will see that this is the world as it should be. Parental choice and privatisation is the ideal way for education to develop in this country! I find it extremely scary and sad that there is an agreement between National and ACT on education which is pushing a privatisation agenda. We need that $35 million elsewhere to create more equity not less. We want that $35 million back. We want to spend it on education for sustainability Enviroschools adult and community education te reo Maori and literacy. We need an equitable public education system for all our children to flourish. We need a bigger gap between the rich and poor the privileged and educated and the vulnerable in public schools like a hole in our hearts. Kia ora.