Labour plans to scrap national education standards - Mallard

The Labour Party would scrap national primary and intermediate education standards if elected, says education spokesman Trevor Mallard.

Mallard will today revive his email newsletter to teachers and principals. The newsletter floats an alternative to the national standards.

Mallard said yesterday the party had not agreed on its policy, but "that's roughly it".

"It's actually easy to unwind. You just say `you don't have to do it'," he said of the standards.

Legislation for national standards in literacy and numeracy at primary and intermediate schools was passed last year.

Schools will have to assess pupils against the standards from next year, and from 2012 provide a breakdown of performances by Maori and Pasifika and male and female pupils.

Mallard said the Government's policy would have a negative impact on learning and would narrow the curriculum.

Labour would require schools to use "norm-referenced tests" and report them to parents, but would not translate the results into national standards.

"They will know where their kids are against a normalised test," he said.

"What it will undo is the ability to dump one school on top of another."

Mallard said he favoured the assessment system called asTTle (Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning), but would not force anything on schools.

The system would work "basically as it is for most schools now", he said.

"The information will be in the school, so if a question is raised about a school's academic performance, that information will be available."

- © Fairfax NZ News