Blindly following orders could result in Tolley discovering just what sacrifice is

OPINION: According to the pundits who never tire of the who's hot, who's not political ranking game, Education Minister Anne Tolley is not. In fact, if there were national standards for Cabinet ministers, her parents would have been called in by now to be told their daughter wasn't up to much. Mr and Mrs Joyce, on the other hand, would receive a wonderful report on their son Steven, who is currently the media pet.

But just like national standards in education, these would be superficial judgments that take insufficient account of the context. It's easy to be loved when you are in charge of the lolly scramble. Since coming into office, Mr Joyce has presided over the disbursement of $1.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money to private companies for the fibre-optic rollout, and a further $4 billion for roads - including the Transmission Gully white elephant.

Meanwhile, Mrs Tolley is playing the good girl.

Ignoring the covert message implicit in the National Party distribution of largesse to the boys playing with their new trucks and diggers in the sandpit, she continues to take seriously the finance minister's instructions to cut spending. She kicked off 2009 by carving $16 million out of adult and community education, presumably at the request of Bill English. This was a king hit on the mainly National Party voters who are likely to have the time and inclination to take the sort of night classes she rubbished as hobby courses. And that was just the start; she has promised to come back this year and get the rest - a further $80 million.

Next, she embarked on the foolish policy of national standards. Foolish because it will have the same effect on achievement that supplying all New Zealand households with a set of scales would have on obesity.

As scale-makers in the US are now having to ratchet up the top measure on their scales from 300 pounds to 400 (182kg) we can assume that scales and weight loss are not causally related. (They may be inversely related, but that's another story.) So, the education minister, on record as rejecting bulk funding performance pay and vouchers, picks a fight with teachers, boards and parents on an issue that has even less educational credibility.

The only way this makes sense is to remember that it's not her policy. The National Party education policy was developed by Mr English when he was the shadow spokesman for education in 2005. He has kept well clear of its implementation.

Mr English has set her a further goal for 2010, and that is to cut 700 teachers' jobs, even though the education sector has already provided more savings than any other government department.

The no cuts to frontline staff will be exposed for the lie it is and who will be there to take the hit for the team?

Mrs Tolley may be the first woman minister of education and a member of a very exclusive club - female National Party Cabinet ministers - but she shouldn't take that to mean that she has anything other than sacrificial status in the Government.

She has the education portfolio precisely because it is considered women's stuff. Her brief is to extract all possible savings from the portfolio so the money can be spent on important things like roads and tunnels. If that brings her public opprobrium then so be it.

Mrs Tolley can continue to play the role of fall girl, meekly delivering cuts to order and dutifully taking full responsibility for dud policy decisions, or she can take on the lads in the sandpit and start fighting for education.

Either way, she may lose, but the latter course would at least leave her some self-respect.

Kate Gainsford is PPTA president.

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Wally Woolly   #3   12:51 pm Jan 15 2010

NZ's tertiary education pass rates are amongst the highest in the OECD. In recent years, significant progress has been made at increasing under represented groups into education such as Maori and Pacific peoples.

(OECD Report Factbook 2008) Comparatively speaking then I would conclude that the government has been getting value for money for it's education spending. The sudden beat up on dropout rates in university is just political spin... Myopic money pinching.

te retard   #2   10:08 pm Jan 14 2010

Hmmmm...... When it comes to ideological dogma, the Nats are worst than the commies. Yes, Ann Tolley was set up to fail. After doing all the dirty work others (not naming names here) higher up in the ladder asked here to do but afraid to do themselves, then she would be let go because "she angered too many people".

May be she could borrow a few of Bill English's purchase advisors.

Bill M   #1   02:59 pm Jan 14 2010

Blindly following dogma is even more dangerous!

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