PDF files of 20th Anniversary Special December 15, 2019

30
Anniversary
Special | December 15, 2019 | indiannewslink.co.nz
Major policy changes to lift education standards
Simeon Brown
A
good education can
transform lives.
That is why Education,
alongside health and
infrastructure, is one of National’s
core investment priorities.
As the Member of Parliament
for Pakuranga (in East Auckland),
I am fortunate to represent
an area with some of the best
schools in the country, and I feel
privileged to serve as National’s
Associate Education Spokesperson.
Great leveller
Education is a great leveller in
society.
National wants every child to
have the opportunity to succeed
no matter who they are or where
they have come from.
With the right education, we
can overcome the challenges
some children face purely because
of the circumstances they
were born into.
The Government has introduced
numerous reviews and
working groups.
In contrast, National’s
Education Discussion Document
outlines many proposals we want
your feedback, and reconfirms
our commitments.
Promoting ECE
In Early Childhood Education
(ECE) we continue to focus on
those critical first 1000 days for
a child, on social investment and
on the quality of education and
care our children receive in those
foundation years.
We are proposing spot checks
on ECE services to ensure they
are meeting the required standards.
If they are breaking the
rules, we’re proposing that these
services be put on notice and parents
informed. If problems aren’t
fixed quickly, services will risk
losing their license to operate.
Most ECE services do a great job
and parents are confident when
they leave their child.
However, there is evidence that
some are not meeting the quality
standards parents expect.
Reducing bureaucracy
National will also support
teachers so they can spend more
time actually teaching.
Too often our teachers are
burdened with too much bureaucracy.
Teachers should be focussing
on face-to-face time with our
children.
Last year, Simon Bridges
announced that a National Government
would reduce class sizes
in primary. We are committed to
this policy and have now released
draft student-teacher ratios for
feedback.
More time with a teacher
means more opportunities for
children to ask questions and get
answers, and for teachers to focus
on areas where a child may be
struggling.
We believe that smaller class
sizes will help reduce the workload
teachers have.
Smaller class sizes means more
teachers.
Incentives to teachers
National is proposing a number
of ways, including financial
incentives, to attract more people
to the profession, or to get people
to return to teaching.
We understand the need to
have strong recruitment and
retention policies to ensure we
can deliver the teachers we need.
We are also considering changes
to initial teacher training,
which include strengthening
practicum requirements, accredited
schools involved in teacher
training and more support for
teachers who mentor beginning
teachers.
A quality education comes from
our teachers, but it also comes
from strengthening the Curriculum.
We want local curriculum to
thrive and teachers to have world
class curriculum resources.
Children must leave school
with firm foundations in core
areas of reading, writing and
maths.
Digital fluency
We want our children to be
digitally savvy and to be digitally
fluent.
But we do worry about how
much time our young children
spend on screens.
We want to ensure that children
are not spending too much
time on devices and are doing
quality learning off-devices.
It is also important parents
know how their children are
progressing.
National will ensure we
continue to improve school
reporting systems, including
better access to online reporting.
As parents you deserve to know
what your child is doing and
what areas they need to improve
on to succeed.
Tertiary education changes
National is also proposing some
changes at the tertiary level.
First year Fees Free has been an
expensive failure. Not only has it
not increased participation, but
also there are fewer learners now
than before. It’s been a waste of
hard earned taxpayer money, so
we want your feedback on some
possible alternatives.
We also oppose the Government’s
Reform of Vocational
Education.
A National Government will
return polytechnic assets and
decision making back to regional
polytechnics. We know the regions
and local industry are best
placed to teach their students.
Sixth Discussion Document
This is our sixth discussion document
and it shows National has
the ideas and momentum, while
Labour is failing to deliver on its
promises for New Zealanders.
Our Education Discussion
Th
Anniversary
Document is a part of the biggest
policy development process undertaken
by an Opposition ever.
We are doing the work now so,
we are ready to hit the ground
running in 2020.
Enter into the contest of ideas
with your feedback at www.
national.org.nz/education.
Simeon Brown is Member
of Parliament elected from
Pakuranga Constituency in East
Auckland. He is National Party’s
Associate Spokesperson for
Education, Tertiary Education
and Skills & Employment.
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