Editorial: School standards must be raised

Among the slew of bills that Parliament was forced to debate and, in some cases, enact before Christmas was the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill in the name of new Education Minister Anne Tolley, The Dominion Post writes.

One of its aims, according to its explanatory note, is to "raise standards of achievement ... in the compulsory education sector". It will allow the minister to set national standards in literacy and numeracy, requiring all state schools to assess student achievement and report children's progress against those national standards.

Given the political leanings of many of the country's teachers, the reservations expressed by their unions and some individuals are unsurprising. In The Dominion Post's own pages, for example, Island Bay School principal Perry Rush rightly bemoaned the lack of community debate the bill was never scrutinised by a parliamentary select committee and more controversially described as "troublesome" the implication that children's under-achievement would be influenced by "legislating schools into high-stakes testing in reading, writing and mathematics".

Mr Rush is not alone in his dismay. But those who back the act are not insignificant in number, either.

Every employer who has watched, frustrated, as a staff member has struggled with totting up prices in their head or tried to decipher a piece of written work drafted on his or her behalf will wish Mrs Tolley success. It is patently clear to those responsible for many young Kiwis be they university or polytechnic lecturers or employers that it has become unfashionable to fail children who cannot string a sentence together using an object, a subject and a verb or who cannot mentally tackle arithmetic.

It is also clear that most teachers suffer no financial penalty if some of their class move on to the next level unable to read, write or do mathematics proficiently.

Whether Mrs Tolley's brand-spanking new law will make a difference, time alone will tell. But teachers so influential in the success or otherwise of their young charges cannot be surprised that National proposed, then passed, its Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill. Its provenance is public exasperation with the current education system.

Associate Education Minister Pita Sharples gave voice to some of that in relation to Maori children shortly before the House rose for Christmas. He spoke of the importance of "expectations" in youngsters' education.

It was not good enough, he said, for teachers to believe that brown children from poor homes could not achieve what their better-off counterparts could. Kids can do well if teachers expect them to.

New Zealand's own educational research underlines that. Teachers engaged teachers, teachers who care enough to learn what makes their pupils' eyes fire are integral to kids' success. But they cannot carry the burden alone.

Parents also have a vital part to play in their children's education success. Those who don't must be encouraged to value education and the opportunities it brings for individual children and, sometimes, for whole families. Good education changes lives.