Duncan Helen: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Duncan Helen: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:621;Page:16382] 
1. HELEN DUNCAN (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: What services to improve the quality of education are delivered centrally and why? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 Professional development is provided centrally in order to ensure that teachers have access to high quality professional learning opportunities to ensure that there is consistent high quality across schools and to ensure that all schools and teachers can access a wider range of quality providers. Recent key professional development strategies that have lifted achievement in literacy and numeracy have been centrally provided. Curriculum support is provided centrally as is the supply of teaching and learning materials to ensure that they are of a high quality. There is also central purchasing of computers and software which achieves economies of scale. It means that schools have access to things that they could not otherwise afford. 
Helen Duncan 
: What reports has the Minister seen about nationally coordinated programmes for schools? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I have seen a report that promises to scrap nationally coordinated programmes for schools and in particular to scrap the curriculum support that schools receive and the professional development programmes that are provided to lift the quality of teaching. Those programmes help thousands of teachers to improve how they teach reading writing and maths with the ultimate benefit going to children around New Zealand— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is sufficient. 
Hon Bill English 
: What will the Minister do about the widespread perception among schools that all the new money for schools is being spent on education bureaucrats and his favourite projects and when will he front up to the campaign by the School Trustees Association to improve the funding of schools rather than filling up the ministry with even more cash that it cannot use? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: There are two points to be made. I do plead guilty to having literacy and numeracy as pet projects. I have poured tens of millions of dollars into them. That is necessary and has been necessary for a long time as we can tell from the spelling mistakes in that member’s press statements. I will not apologise for spending $200 million on putting teachers into New Zealand schools over and above roll growth. That member does not like it. He does not like extra teachers going into schools. He wants bulk funding but he will not get it. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Given the recent report on the wide variance in activities of resource teachers of learning and behaviour has he considered bringing them under Special Education? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: In brief there is work to do in that area to work out how the administration and reporting functions can be improved for resource teachers of learning and behaviour. They are certainly not working evenly around the country. 
Bernie Ogilvy 
: Does the Minister think that the quality of support staff is best served by funding through the operations grant or will he consider funding support staff directly with teachers thus acknowledging the vital role that they play? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It would be relatively easy to take the money from operations grants which are currently used to pay support staff and to employ them directly. I am not sure that it would be consistent with the general thrust of Tomorrow’s Schools which has generally worked pretty well in New Zealand.