Salesa JennyHon JENNY SALESA (Associate Minister of Education): Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker for this opportunity to speak on the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) at its third reading. I thank the member who has just spoken the Hon Nikki Kaye. One of the things that the honourable member said when she started her speech was that we do not get it and that we do not care and that we're not listening to teachers or the students—and that apparently we're not into cross-party agreements. But I do want to remind the Hon Nikki Kaye that one of the first things that the Hon Chris Hipkins did last year before we actually even launched the Kōrero Mātauranga the national conversations and the first of the national conversations was held in Christchurch was reach out across to our Opposition members including the Hon Nikki Kaye and I do recall seeing her in Christchurch as well as several other members of the National Party. That is of course the ideal: if we can get cross-party agreement on something as important as our education system we know that that would be then an education system that is long-lasting and is enduring. The education system that we have right now Tomorrow's Schools was introduced under Labour 30 years ago and we know that 30 years later it is not fit for purpose. The Hon Nikki Kaye also spoke about the students who are disadvantaged those from lower socio-economic areas and I can speak from South Auckland being an MP from South Auckland where the majority of our students are Māori and Pacific. One of the reasons why it is really important that we get it right one of the reasons why the Ministry of Education together with the Minister of Education and three Associate Ministers of Education have gone out to consult with and to get over 55000 people's comments and advice is to make sure that we get it right.Now back to this Education Amendment Bill (No 2). I wholeheartedly support it. We acknowledge the Minister the Hon Chris Hipkins for his work. I'd also like to acknowledge the Education and Workforce Committee for their work in getting us to this point. I'd also like to thank the Parliamentary Counsel Office for their work in drafting the legislation. I'd also like to mention two Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) Supplementary Order Paper 220 as well as SOP 224 because they will address two things. They will ensure that for the reporting requirements in order to give schools more time to account for the review of Tomorrow's Schools we actually give them a little bit more time before all of those changes come through and second that we clarify the rules around a university changing its name. Now during the second reading of this bill just yesterday the Hon Nikki Kaye the former Minister of Education also spoke about the many many meetings that she has held. We have also held many meetings across Aotearoa as well because as I said earlier on we are there to listen. We are there to listen to everyone from young kids from young people to their parents and to caregivers. I held many meetings with Pacific people as well as our ethnic communities because it is important to me to ensure that we get it right for the next 20 to 30 years. Why? Because when you look at the demographics of students right now when you look at those who are currently in preschool right through to the end of year 13 we see that about 50 percent of the total population in schools are made up of Māori students ethnic community students and Pacific students. So the reality right now is that that is the majority of our students in year 13 down to preschool. This particular bill is about ensuring that we require private schools to be safe places for our tamariki for all of our students. The Education Act 1989 does not allow the Secretary for Education to consider students' safety when considering private school registration applications. I'll give you an example that we are well aware of that happened a year or so ago where—and this is actually covered in the departmental briefing to the select committee—and I quote significant concerns [were raised] about the safety of students at a [certain] private school … ERO raised concerns about [the] health and safety … [in this particular] private school over a number of years. [That] school … continued [ however] to meet the registration criteria over this [period of] time. Following [a particular] incident where a student was seriously injured a multi-agency investigation (involving the Ministry of Education … Oranga Tamariki)"—as well as the police—"also found further … concern about the physical and emotional safety of students at the school." The Ministry of Education suspended the school's registration under section 35K over a period of a year. The school was asked to provide more information but the Secretary for Education was still not able to address it in any major way. So this particular proposal in this legislation would ensure that if anything like that is to happen in the future the Secretary for Education can put a lot of things into place to ensure that our students remain safe: that they are safe both physically and emotionally. Private schools are really supportive of this because it is important that we ensure all of our students are safe.With regard to cohort entry: this bill changes the requirement for cohort entry so that our tamariki can start school in cohorts but only after they turn five years of age. When you look overseas when you look at other countries the average age for entry into school is six years old. There are some countries whose average age is seven years old. So actually allowing our students to enter schools at five years of age is already really really early. But what we believe the previous Government wanted to do is that one of the things that they talk a lot about is that they put students our children at the centre of their decision making. But at the same time they also want our students—our young young kids—to enter school so that parents can get back to work sooner because they are worried about lost productivity.As the Hon Tracey Martin covered yesterday—as well as the Hon Chris Hipkins earlier on in his contribution today—we are also focused on ensuring that our young students are at the centre of learning but we are absolutely into making sure that our young children can enter school after they turn five but that there is the opening and that cohort entry for our students actually allows our parents to still make a choice after they turn five to enter school.So the Education Amendment Bill (No 2) will ensure that early childhood education subsidies—including the 20 hours free including Ministry of Social Development childcare assistance subsidies—are still in place.We also expect that the proposed changes under this bill will improve the school experiences for all of our new entrants. The changes will give parents more flexibility. It'll give schools more manageable cohort sizes and it will reduce the cost of keeping children in early childhood education centres.In terms of the Advisory Group on Early Learning in 2010 one of their recommendations—they were pretty adamant about this—is that we should ensure that there should not be any downward push on school starting age much earlier. This is actually an advisory group to the previous Government. In fact their recommendation was "that a play-based curriculum offers the best learning experiences for our tamariki." I absolutely commend this bill to the House."