King Colin: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
King Colin: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:671;Page:17483] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 This Government has got it right in relation to education. When we look at the situation in early childhood education we see that it is all about giving people the opportunity that early childhood education offers. We recognise that lifting achievements in education is very important and that starts at the earliest of stages. Directing nearly $100 million towards increasing participation is about getting it right and for those people who would normally have the door of opportunity to early childhood education closed on them it is opening the door up and giving them that opportunity. 
When we look at education we see that it has been central to this Government’s plan for lifting economic potential in the long term and we see that plan starting with early childhood education. It was quite interesting that I had a small number of staff from early childhood education centres come to me early on when the policy came out for capping teacher-led services at 80 percent. For a while I was led to believe that the policy was a terrible thing. But then Louise Upston came down the wonderful MP from Taupo and we went around the rest of the early childhood education centres in Marlborough and we got a totally different story. We got a very positive story about how capping teacher-led services at 80 percent was wonderful that education centres were able to bring in very capable senior mature people who could meet those needs and that we could make the funding go so much further so much more effectively. 
I also want to concentrate on the transition from schooling to work. It is an area in which the last administration failed miserably. It threw heaps of money at it and achieved nothing. The National Government has implemented the Youth Guarantee programme. It is a fantastic policy. It has enabled children who have not really been able to find a schooling environment that meets their needs to be given a universal entitlement of free access to wananga polytechs and suchlike in courses such as automotive engineering tourism travel business administration carpentry and suchlike. It is such a common-sense approach for ensuring that those children who have a hands-on learning style are hooked into education for as long as possible because if you can see the relevance of what you are learning you will be passionate about it. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Order! 
COLIN KING 
: Sorry Mr Chairperson. So one will see the wisdom of education and be quite passionate about it. The 4000 places that have been made available under the Youth Guarantee are a great step forward and the policy is making sure those young ones—16 and 17 year olds—do not fall between the gaps. 
Adding to that this Government is working to create a number of trade academies. This too is a further enhancement for young people who will not necessarily go to university but who will be wonderful citizens of New Zealand and who need the literacy and numeracy skills to be able to complete a trade. They therefore need to be tied into education for as long as possible so that when they commence their trades they will have the level of literacy numeracy and maths to be able to complete the distance-learning aspects of their trades. It is an area where we have been void in this country in relation to education for many many years. Too much of our focus has been on a single academic pathway leading into university. 
The biggest challenge this Government faces now—and we will address it—is how we can attract the right teachers to do the training. If we do not get the right teachers to inspire build up and create the passion we need in our students then we will have failed them which is a point that National is very conscious of. It is good to see now that the Government has allocated $36 million to support those children under national standards who are identified as being the below the Plunket line if members want to describe it that way so that we can lift them up with the skills we have. 
Report noted.