Our schools, and children, are being set up to fail

SUE MORONEY

OPINION: It was just a month ago that I sat in a Hamilton school staffroom listening to 10 local schools describe the bizarre battles they were having with the Education Ministry over national standards.

As a mother, it horrified me to hear the amount of energy (and taxpayer money) that the ministry was pouring into imposing the flawed standards on unwilling schools.

As a politician, I wanted to break the deadlock between the schools and the ministry so they could all get on with where the real focus should be – on planning and delivering top-quality education for our children.

Last week, I was proud to deliver that solution as Labour's spokesperson for education with Labour's plan to lift achievement at primary schools.

The answer does not lie with a "one size fits all" approach to education characterised by the Government's national standards. That is why Labour will not require schools to implement them.

International evidence shows the Government's approach is likely to entrench underachievement. Similar approaches have failed in the United Kingdom and United States.

They, too, had catchy titles that sounded good. "No Child Left Behind" and "Every Child Counts" proved to deliver the opposite. And so will national standards.

In both the UK and US, the relentless pursuit of testing and assessing children in reading, writing in maths made matters worse.

Schools soon learned that they could make their figures look good quickly if they put most of their resources into the children just below the standard. This meant that the children above standard, at standard and well below standard got little attention.

It also seriously undermines a child's self-esteem to be told he or she is failing at five years of age. This only leads to further failure.

Narrowing the curriculum down to reading, writing and maths means children are less likely to discover a love of learning that will improve their literacy and numeracy.

Now add to that the fact that a large number of our primary schools have been forced to adopt national standards against their will.

The Government's bullying of schools over national standards has become a distraction and dented the morale of teachers. Many have told me they've never seen it so low.

Labour will not force schools to implement the national standards. They were developed without consultation, are untested and were implemented in haste.

Labour will set high expectations for each student according to his or her individual ability – we call it "Reaching for the Stars". We'll also make sure parents get clear and regular feedback on their child's progress against the New Zealand curriculum. We know that children achieve more when their parents are actively involved in their education. That's why Labour will require schools to report in plain language to parents about how their child is achieving, what progress they have made and agree on what the next learning steps are.

Schools will be required to use nationally recognised assessment tools and teacher judgment to inform parents, so they can be actively involved in their children's education.

It's time to take politics out of primary schools and support them to do what they do best – educating our kids to a standard envied by countries around the world.

- © Fairfax NZ News