Parata Hekia: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8657. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): I move That the Education Legislation Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Science Committee to consider the bill. This year I had the privilege of showcasing to our international counterparts how great our education system is in New Zealand and I hope reflect that back to us as New Zealanders. We have so much to be proud of.We have increased the proportion of 18-year-olds who achieve our National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 or higher from 68 percent in 2008 to 88.3 percent in 2014. I am particularly proud of the lifts for Pacific students from 44.6 percent in 2008 to 67.7 percent and for Māori students from just over 51 percent in 2008 to 75 percent in 2014. Those are extraordinary lifts in achievement and they owe that achievement to the students themselves to their parents and whānau and of course to the teachers and principals who have worked to make that possible.Since 2010 the rate of children starting school having previously participated in early childhood education has also increased by 1.7 percentage points to 96.1 percent. For Māori and Pasifika this has increased at an even faster rate—up to 93.8 percent for Māori and up to 91 percent for Pasifika. In 15 of the 16 regions primary school achievement in writing and mathematics has increased since 2011. I am particularly pleased by the progress in areas such as the West Coast Gisborne and Northland where the percentage of 18-year-olds with NCEA level 2 or an equivalent qualification has risen by between 11.7 and 18.4 percentage points. Teachers and principals deserve a great deal of credit for taking up this Government’s achievement challenge.Ninety-six communities of learning involving 793 schools and more than a quarter of a million pupils are working together to systematically raise student achievement through communities of learning. That means a year into the 4-year roll-out of the programme about a third of all our students are in line to benefit from the additional funding that enables schools to set their own achievement challenges and share expertise and resources.When the brand new trades academy opens in Southland next year we will have a trades academy in every region in New Zealand. Trades academies deliver overwhelmingly positive results for our children—not just any of our kids but those who are risk of not achieving in education. We opened our first trades academy in 2009 with 600 places and since then we have increased this tenfold whereby next year over 6000 will be participating in trades academies. Provisional 2014 results indicate that 85 percent of 18-year-olds who have participated in trades academies achieved at least NCEA level 2 compared with 77 percent for a comparison group of 18-year-olds who did not participate in trades academies.We have also established nine partnership schools kura hourua and my colleague David Seymour the Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Education has invited applications for a third round to open in 2017. These schools are a little bit of innovation in our system. They are designed to give kids a shot at education and brighter prospects than they otherwise would not have had and they respect the fact that parents make the choice of the school that their children go to. The choice and diversity in the New Zealand education system has resulted however in complex legislation spread across multiple Acts.Chris Hipkins: Ah! She’s finally getting to the bill.Hon HEKIA PARATA: The Education Legislation Bill—just providing a little context to inform our consideration—is an omnibus bill amending eight Acts which will improve administrative and governance arrangements for educational entities and funding organisations.One of the eight statutes being amended is the Education Act 1989. That Act is also the subject of a separate targeted update that will set the strategic direction for the education system. The Government is currently consulting on the update of that Act.This bill contains amendments implementing a number of policies. They are principals managing more than one school minimum school opening hours tertiary education institutions sponsoring partnership schools enabling licensed home-based education and care services to simultaneously provide early childhood education in out-of-school care services tertiary education policies modernising antiquated Acts and miscellaneous amendments.We know that quality teaching and leadership makes a significant difference to student achievement. However many schools face ongoing challenges to recruit and retain suitable principals particularly in our rural areas. The Government has introduced a range of measures through our Investing in Educational Success initiative to improve schools’ access to effective principals. An example is the principal recruitment allowance. This allowance enables certain schools to offer a more competitive salary in order to recruit an experienced principal.To complement these measures schools should also have the option of being able to share a principal. However under the current legislation this option is available only where there is a combined board of trustees. This bill addresses this anomaly by giving all school boards irrespective of their governance arrangements the option of appointing a principal to manage more than one school. It also gives our very good principals more challenge and a more interesting career path.Schools are increasingly seeking more flexibility in their timetables to cater to the particular needs of their school and their students. This bill provides school boards with the opportunity to vary their opening hours. This kind of innovation and responsiveness to what works for students must be encouraged. But we know that this must be balanced with the needs of the community and so the bill mandates that boards must consult with their parents staff the local community and anyone else they consider to be affected. The longstanding requirement for schools to be open for instruction for a minimum of 4 hours a day will not be changed. A requirement to consult and to ensure that students do not spend less time in school than students in comparable and other local schools acts as a constraint on any arbitrary exercise of the boards’ new discretion.This bill amends the Education Act 1989 to allow tertiary education institutions to become sponsors of partnership schools. The parliamentary under-secretary and I through partnership schools have been focused on providing parents with greater choice. This change reflects the Government’s continued backing of partnership schools and its belief that tertiary education institutions’ strong links with secondary education and industry’s understanding of the latest educational research and proven track record as capable managers of significant budgets will strengthen the network of partnership school sponsors.The bill will enable licensed home-based early childhood education providers to also simultaneously provide early childhood education and out-of-school care services subject to constraints. The amendments will allow for increased parental choice and will better support workforce participation by parents of their children.On behalf of my colleague the Hon Steven Joyce the tertiary education aspects of the bill will clarify that tertiary education institutions are not required to seek the Minister of Finance’s approval before investing in related entities but will require parent-level reporting and a power for the Minister responsible for tertiary education institutions to require information. It will also make a minor change to the process for setting conditions on fees that tertiary education providers can charge domestic students.Other amendments include proposals for the national student number which will support the increasing use of online educational services enabling the State Services Commissioner to approve generic or specific terms in conditions of employment remove unnecessary operational specifications relating to the provision of payroll services and update aspects of the Ngarimu VC and 28th (Maori) Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Act 1945 and the Pacific Islands Polynesian Education Foundation Act 1972.The ability of the education sector to effectively and efficiently meet its statutory obligations including delivering financial assistance to students is being hampered by overly complex legislation. The Education Legislation Bill will address this situation. Broadly the proposals in this bill will continue to support this Government’s unswerving focus on lifting aspiration and raising the educational achievement of New Zealanders. I now commend the bill to the House.