'Three Rs' plan alarms parents

An official report reveals one-third of parents had concerns about the new national school standards system before it was launched – despite the government's claims the system has a "strong mandate" from parents.

In submissions to the Ministry of Education, parents were worried the system would:

Demotivate children who do not reach the benchmarks

Lead to unfair comparisons of schools

Ignore differences in the ways individual children learn.

The controversial system was launched last month by Prime Minister John Key and Education Minister Anne Tolley. From next year, primary and intermediate school teachers will track each child's achievement in reading, writing and mathematics, and compare them against set standards for their year level. Plunket-style charts and plain-language reports showing each child's progress will be sent to parents twice annually and, from 2012, schools will have to feed results to the ministry.

Teachers, principals and education groups have been vocal about their concerns over the system, saying it will lead to league tables, overworked teachers and "teaching to the test".

Tolley has hit back by saying the system has overwhelming support from parents. She remains adamant this is true, despite findings in a report – commissioned by the ministry and written by the New Zealand Council for Education Research – that shows more than 1000 parents raised concerns about the system during consultation.

The report was released five weeks ago but has gone under the radar until now; it is an analysis of 5000 written submissions, including those from 3000 parents. The report said while this sample was self-selected it was a "reasonable reflection" of the population. It said that in response to a "broad, open-ended question asking for further comments or suggestions", 38% of parents made negative comments about the national standards system.

Only 14% made positive comments.

Tolley's press release on the report was titled "Parents Support National Standards". Its opening line read: "Consultation feedback shows strong support from parents." The concerns were not mentioned in the release.

Yesterday, Tolley stood by the press release, which included a link to the report. She said it was "amazing" opposition spokesman Trevor Mallard and sector group leaders had not read it before the Sunday Star-Times sent them copies on Friday.

Mallard said he is embarrassed he hadn't seen the report earlier, but said it calls into question the "spin" and "propaganda" put out by the minister, and "will be a big dent in the minister's credibility". He said the parents' concerns "will add some fuel to the fire" in the debate. "It might be OK if you've got all the parents on your side. Politically, that might work – but she doesn't."

Tolley maintains she does have parents' support, and says the open-ended question would naturally generate some negative comments.

"[Parents] raise some quite legitimate concerns... That doesn't mean that they didn't like the standards."

Ernie Buutveld, president of the New Zealand Principals' Federation, said 38% of parents making negative comments was a "significant proportion" but he was not surprised by it.

Frances Nelson, head of primary teachers' union the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), said: "It is absolutely no surprise at all that parents are worried about the standards." Nelson added that government had not addressed those concerns before launching the system. "Those are questions that we are really concerned about as well."

During consultation, parents showed strong support for the plain-language school reports and learning plans that will be sent home twice a year. They called for open and honest communication with schools and wanted to know how best to help their children learn.

But parents were never asked directly whether or not they supported the system.

Tolley: "I don't think they were ever asked, put up a show of hands, do you want this or not... We sort of did that at the election. It was a key part of our manifesto, so we do have a public mandate."

Later this month, sector leaders will meet to discuss the standards. Boycotting them was not out of the question.

- © Fairfax NZ News