Hipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9794. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of Education: Why did she say yesterday that “we will not be interested in how we stigmatise children” as part of the school funding review when she said less than a minute earlier that the current decile system was unhelpful because it stigmatised low-decile schools?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. The full quote from which that excerpt is selectively taken was: “we will not be interested in how we stigmatise children rather what we are trying to do is get the right resource to the right kid at the right time in the right places …”. I have been consistent in stating that I do not believe that stigmatising children based on the community they live in the decile of the school they go to or individually would lead to good educational outcomes and I am surprised the member is promoting that.Chris Hipkins: If she does not want to stigmatise children in the same way that low-decile schools are currently stigmatised will she rule out attaching school funding to children with parents who have criminal convictions no qualifications or who rely on a benefit?Hon HEKIA PARATA: We are at an early stage in the process. At no point have I suggested that we will be individualising funding to follow a child on any basis. We are simply at the stage of exploring the options of how we identify what resourcing needs to go where in order for the size of that education challenge to be better met.Chris Hipkins: Will she give an assurance that socio-economic factors will continue to be taken into consideration in any change to school funding given that Treasury’s proposed approach excludes socio-economic disadvantage as a funding criteria; if not why not?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Yes.Chris Hipkins: Do any of the options currently being considered by the Government link school funding to student achievement data such as national standards or the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)?Hon HEKIA PARATA: We have a number of reports. They are ones that I am going to be sharing with the teacher unions with the professional associations and with the sector as a whole. We will work our way through and then I will be delighted to share the outcome of those discussions with the House.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: No listen—I will just invite the member to repeat that question.Chris Hipkins: Do any of the options currently being considered by the Government link school funding to student achievement data such as national standards or NCEA?Hon HEKIA PARATA: There are no specific options currently under consideration.Chris Hipkins: Has she read the Ministry of Education’s report from July 2013 which states that the performance-based funding model for charter schools “tests a possible incentive model” and will she rule out that model being rolled out to State schools?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I think it is a long bow—a suggestion in a report in 2013 that related to a particular category of schools and whether the suggestion was considered in that context. To extrapolate it into the wider mainstream system—Hon Member: Then rule it out.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Again I am not ruling in or out any option at this stage because it would be disrespectful to the process and the discussion yet to occur with the sector.Jenny Salesa: How does she believe her approach to decile funding—in her words “we will not be interested in how we stigmatise children …”—will benefit Pacific children given the fact that 65 percent of Pacific students attend a decile 1 school and that her approach is likely to stigmatise many of those students?Hon HEKIA PARATA: In the primary answer I gave a response that made it clear I was not interested in stigmatising any children whether they came from a particular community went to a school with a particular decile or individually. How do I think Pasifika kids can be helped? The way we are doing it now. We have more Pasifika kids in early childhood education than ever before and we have more Pasifika young people getting our minimum qualification than ever before.