Time to step up, Key tells teachers

ANDREW GORRIE/The Dominion Post

WAR ON "MISINFORMATION": Anne Tolley and John Key at the launch of a $200,000 campaign to explain the Government's national standards for reading and writing.

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The Government has attacked teacher unions, with Prime Minister John Key writing directly to parents to counter alleged misinformation on the new national standards.

Mr Key signalled yesterday that two-thirds of primary school leaders and 30 per cent of teachers would have to pull their socks up.

Alongside embattled Education Minister Anne Tolley, he introduced a $200,000 information campaign promoting the literacy and numeracy standards. The campaign would deal with the "misinformation" being spread by teacher unions.

"Inevitably, national standards will identify some teachers who need to change their ways and step up," Mr Key said. He suggested that union opposition to the policy was motivated by protecting members who feared greater accountability and "put their own vested interests" ahead of young Kiwis.

National standards will be introduced in primary and intermediate schools from this week. All children aged five to 12 will be assessed as at, above, below or well below the national standard for reading and writing at their year level. Parents will get reports at least twice a year.

Mr Key said the Education Review Office had found two-thirds of school leaders were not properly managing assessment and 30 per cent of teachers were not doing a good job of teaching reading and writing.

"And many principals aren't adequately sharing their school's achievement information with their communities," he said.

The national standards would identify poor performers and demand more from them. "Unless you are prepared to measure, monitor and report on something, you will ultimately never change. It shouldn't be any different in education."

Mr Key said he had written to about 350,000 families to explain the policy. The letter includes a pamphlet paid for out of his leader's office budget at a cost of $200,000.

A further $26 million would be spent on "targeted teacher training" and $36m on helping struggling pupils.

He also announced that an independent advisory committee would be set up to give advice on how implementation of the standards was going.

Mrs Tolley said the policy "would take several years to bed in". "The good teachers" that she had spoken to felt there was no reason why the standards could not work.

The Government had "parted ways" with the unions in October when they called for a trial of the standards, she said.

Labour leader Phil Goff said the information campaign amounted to propaganda. "It's not focused on the kids any more, it's focused on trying to sell their side of the story when they've got so many people offside."

He said Mrs Tolley should have been sacked over the introduction of the standards, which had turned into a shambles.

Frances Nelson, president of the primary teachers' union, the New Zealand Educational Institute, said the policy's rollout had been haphazard and the standards were untried and untested.

"The purpose of the school system is not to provide a lifetime sinecure for every teacher, but to prepare children for adulthood."

- © Fairfax NZ News