Communities and Government Must Work Together To Improve Children's Education says Shipley

Communities and Government must continue to work together in partnership for the betterment of our children's education, Prime Minister Jenny Shipley told pupils at Lincoln High School in Christchurch today.

Mrs Shipley was invited to the school to open two new science laboratories and five relocated classrooms. The project has been jointly funded by the Government and the board of trustees with the help of the local community.

"It's critical that we maintain our investment in young New Zealanders by providing them with a good education and a clean and safe environment to learn in," Mrs Shipley said. "This requires the co-operation of communities and Government working together on projects like new science laboratories and new classrooms and other resources.

"These things are necessary to ensure our children are technologically and scientifically smart so they can foot it with the rest of the world.

"But, the Government also recognises that not every child is doing well in school despite good classrooms and good teachers. For example, we spend roughly $65 million on Training Opportunity Programmes for 16 and 17 year-olds who need to be taught basic reading, maths and life skills.

"That is simply unacceptable and that's one of the reasons we launched a new initiative yesterday as part of our 'Policies for Progress' to ensure that all children know how to read, write and understand mathematics by age nine.

"We want to achieve this goal by the year 2005 and with the help of businesses, communities, families and whanau, I think we will be able to achieve that. It comes down to co-operation and a partnership between communities and Government," Mrs Shipley concluded.