Carter Chris: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Carter Chris: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17506] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Education) 
: 
 What an embarrassing speech that was from National’s education spokesperson Anne Tolley who is the member for East Coast. I am really glad that she brought up Schools Plus because that individual is National’s education spokesperson. She stood in this Committee and started to talk about Schools Plus. People listening to Parliament or viewers watching on television will not know that the National spokesperson on education put out a press release about a month ago on this very issue. It revealed that she had not even read the discussion document—and she is National’s education spokesperson! She is putting herself up to be an alternative Minister of Education. She made a press statement about the programme and repeated the comments in the Chamber today but clearly she has not read the document. If she had read it she would know that the policy Schools Plus is firstly the result of a long period of development and I will talk about that in a minute. Secondly it does not start until next year. Thirdly we have put aside $10 million as a contingency fund for the consultation period. But we are only doing the consultation now so that does not cost very much. 
When the Prime Minister launched this programme she said we would set aside at least $170 million; it may well be more. The Prime Minister told New Zealand and I am telling the Committee tonight that the Labour-led Government sees Schools Plus as our flagship policy. This policy is designed to catch those students in secondary school education who are simply not succeeding at the moment—around 20 to 25 percent of students. They also are the future of our country. We want them to be upskilled both for their own personal development and for the benefit of all of us because they are the future of our country. Who would not want our students to be the best skilled the most literate and the most numerate that we could possibly make them? That is great for them great for the economy and great for the society of New Zealand. 
National’s education spokesperson Anne Tolley asked where the money was for this programme. I say to her that this is a consultation process at the moment; it does not need much money. This issue is complex and brings together schools industries unions independent training organisations and the wider fabric of our society—the agricultural sector and industrial sector—and asks them how we can provide learning opportunities for young people who currently are not succeeding in our education system. We are building on things we are already doing. This policy just described by National’s education spokesperson as a policy developed on the fly has actually been in place for a long time. The Gateway programme where young students go out to gain work experience has now been rolled out to every secondary school. We have 20 schools this year working on a pilot on Youth Apprenticeships; we had 10 last year. These are important building blocks in the process of making Schools Plus work. 
Schools Plus is a policy that builds on everything in our 20 free hours policy. National recently copied that programme but took out the word “free” because it had no intention of course of giving 20 free hours’ education. The Labour-led Government brought in the 20 free hours policy to get as great a participation of young 3 and 4-year-old New Zealanders in early childhood education as possible. Statistics New Zealand tells us that in the first year of operation the cost to parents for their child’s participation has been reduced by 30 percent. This incredibly popular policy introduced by the Labour-led Government had its first anniversary just last week. When the programme came in 65000 young children took up 20 free hours; today 85000 are taking that up—a 30 percent increase. 
The greater participation in early childhood education coupled with our new curriculum for primary schools which creates greater flexibility but focuses on core competencies; the work we are doing in middle schooling which is about lifting numeracy and literacy; and Schools Plus as it rolls out into the secondary schools are all about making sure the educational pathway of young New Zealanders gives them a future. I repeat the educational success of our young people is not only really important in helping them realise their potential but also is critical to the rest of us. It builds a stronger economy for New Zealand and a stronger society. 
National’s education spokesperson’s claim that Schools Plus is a policy on the fly is totally untrue. This policy has been rolled out. It is comprehensive. It is not just about Schools Plus; it is about everyone participating in early childhood education. It is about developing a new curriculum which I might say has been looked at around the world as a model of best practice. I heard a gasp from the other side of the Chamber. One of the things that I am lucky enough to do as Minister of Education is to represent our country at international conferences and meetings of Ministers of Education. Just a month ago I was in Australia for the meeting of Australian state and Federal Ministers of Education. The Australian Ministers were talking about developing a curriculum for Australian schools. Each state has a curriculum but there is no Federal curriculum. What do they hold up as their best-practice example? It is New Zealand’s new curriculum. Our curriculum had 15000 submitters 10000 written submissions and was an amazing document developed over a long period of time—world best practice. I was in Peru recently at the APEC Education Ministers’ conference. New Zealand’s new curriculum the work we are doing in professional development for our teachers and Schools Plus which is about lifting the skills of students who are currently not achieving were held up as a model for the rest of APEC. 
I am really proud to be the Minister of Education with an education system here in New Zealand that is world class cutting edge and doing as much as it can. Of course it has had $5 billion extra invested in it by the Labour-led Government in the last 8½ years. It is an education system that we can be proud of and National’s education spokesperson—a woman who hopes to replace me at the end of this year although she will not—makes the comment about Schools Plus that she has not even read the consultation document. How embarrassing for the National Party in an election year that its spokesperson has not even read a consultation document on the most revolutionary change in our schools. 
I am really proud of what my Government has done in investing in education because there can be no more important investment in our country than in education. Education is something that successive Labour Governments especially this one passionately believe in. It is something that I as an individual passionately believe in and I am really proud of what this Budget process we have just been through has delivered for the education system and the children of New Zealand.