By Frances Cook
Bullying tactics that force schools to accept the national standards scheme need to stop, the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) and the Labour Party say.
National standards aim to enforce benchmarks on reading, writing and arithmetic, but there has been staunch opposition from schools who believe the scheme will negatively impact classroom learning.
NZEI President Ian Leckie says schools have been bullied into compliance, but remain defiant.
“Forcing schools to be minimally compliant does not mean opposition to national standards has been stymied,” Mr Leckie says.
“Just because a school has been ordered to put a statement in its charter does not mean it will be implementing national standards or measuring children against them.
“Schools are complying because they don’t want statutory managers put in place, but that can in no way be seen as an endorsement of what is untried and a fundamentally flawed educational policy.
“The crisis of confidence in national standards remains," he says.
Labour education spokesperson Sue Moroney says Labour opposes the national standards system because it is a “one size fits all” approach to education “that is bad for both students and teachers”.
“Schools that believe there is no educational merit in the standards have been threatened and bullied by a Minister who has failed to convince teachers of the merits of the system,” Ms Moroney says.
She says the best education happens when teachers are passionate about their work, which won’t happen with forced compliance.
“I think she should have listened to the sector early on and listened to the advice of the expert panel to at least trial [the standards] first.”
3 News