Ogilvy Bernie: Budget Debate 
Ogilvy Bernie: Budget Debate 
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BERNIE OGILVY (United Future) 
: 
 I want to look in particular at education in the Budget and in the appropriations that have been put before us. We in United Future are of the mind that the kernel of life is to build a child. It is much easier to build a child than to repair an adult. The family is the core of our country. The previous speaker indicated that this Government has been endeavouring to reach out to the family and that what is good for the family is good for the country. United Future wishes to shift the emphasis of educational policy towards a very fundamental matter: learning. 
United Future affirms that the home is where the first teacher works. I note that this Budget provides very little additional help for teaching in the home for Parents as First Teachers. In the home the kitchen table becomes the first school desk and in many cases the child’s bedroom wall becomes the first chalkboard—unfortunately for some parents. We take the view that the responsibility rests with parents to make choices as to what their children learn and where they learn—at a pre-school at a school or at home. 
We believe that the child should receive the money wherever the child is being educated. We say that to build a child is easier than to repair an adult. I do not think many people in this country lack concern—and they are very concerned—that over 25 percent of our children cannot read or write and are mathematically illiterate when they leave primary school. That is an indictment on the system. I know that the Government is trying to address the problem and has set money aside to do so but it is not being addressed in the areas that we know that it applies to the most. 
The schools that have the indicators for these difficulties are not being addressed correctly. The assembly line of inflexibility and the lack of innovation are paralysing children. We think that the one-size-fits-all approach of the 19th century needs to be strongly scrutinised and maybe even dismantled in some areas so that we can prepare our children and our grandchildren for the 21st century. We need to prepare citizens to handle the future not the past. Major major emphasis needs to be laid on that. We do not think that this Budget lays much emphasis on the long term. There are promises for the future but nothing for people now. 
Part of what we feel is missed out in this Budget with regard to learning concerns the mandate to which I have alluded already to build capable free citizens through literacy. We think that this Government and all future Governments strongly need to restore literacy and numeracy to their rightful place at the very centre of the school curriculum. If that is done—and it should have been emphasised in the Budget—I believe that there will be some hope for people in the future coming out of our education systems able to contribute as free citizens. 
Also we believe that as part of addressing critical literacy problems we need to promote relevant alternative education programmes for boys and girls covering both core and non-core subjects. Recreation and sport need to be exploited more as learning possibilities for our young children. Alternative education programmes that best suit the learning styles of children and the future aspirations of students needed to be provided for in this Budget but I saw nothing there that makes that possible. 
United Future will help to strengthen families—everyone across the nation knows that—in order to end up with an intelligent knowledgable capable caring and compassionate New Zealand.