National Education Standards doomed to fail

New educational standards will fail, academics say
A system of new national educational standards to assess primary school students is doomed to fail, academics across New Zealand say. Their doubts over the new standards-based system to rate children join those of teachers and parents expressed earlier this month. In an open letter to Education Minister Anne Tolley, four education academics from Otago, Waikato and Auckland universities highlighted "fundamental flaws" in the hastily developed system. Professor John Hattie, from Auckland University, Professor Martin Thrupp, from Waikato University, and Otago University's Professor Terry Crooks and senior research fellow Lester Flockton submitted the open letter yesterday. Prime Minister John Key previously said Professor Hattie introduced the idea of the standards-based system to him, though the academic now warned the system was flawed. The standards had been developed too quickly and were not ready to be brought in over the next three years, the group said.

Yesterday in Parliament Anne Tolley attempted to defend this abortion of education policy by claiming that parents supported her plan, that is a bare faced lie…

'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.

Folks why is the minister of education so uneducated? These league tables National have been trying to smuggle in under the national standards regime have been sold to NZ as having the support of parents yet an official report released in the weekend shows that 38% of parents made negative comments about National’s plans and only 14% made positive comments. Yet Education Minister Anne Tolley’s press release on the report read, ‘Patents support National Standards’ – no they didn’t only 14% did, 38% were negative.

National are pretending there is support for their national standards because their secret motive for league tables to create false competition is an education reform they know they can’t be upfront about.

The National Standards are a League table in disguise to create false competition within Education, and to forward these ideological goals, National are risking the education standards of the every child throughout the country.

If Labour had pulled a stunt like this, the NZ Herald editorial staff would be firebombing Government buildings.