EDUCATION -ACHIEVEMENTS AND THE FUTURE

As everyone here knows it was only a little over six weeks ago that I became Minister of Education. It is telling on the status of the education portfolio that the initial response to my appointment was commiserations rather than congratulations. That initial reaction was best summed up I suppose by one that came up to me and said What have you done wrong?

Quite seriously we have to ask ourselves how it can be that the portfolio covering the most important public policy investment we can make to secure the future for the young people of our country can be seen in that way? Perhaps we should think about that. I think the time is here for all involved in the education sector to take a deep breath and think carefully about the way ahead. We should de-personalise the debate - it is not a matter of calling loudly I hate Lockwood Smith or Wyatt Creech - we should have a sensible forward looking debate about this very important area.

We need to repeat some first principles. I personally and the National Government are committed to a world-class taxpayer funded education system of the highest quality for New Zealand. Let there be no doubt about that as I begin my term in this difficult portfolio to deal with the challenges that confront us.

The first challenge is to manage the huge roll growth we are facing in the next few years. School rolls alone are expected to grow by 92,000 by the year 2000. We will need four and a half thousand more classrooms for extra pupils. Fifty new schools will be built over the next ten years. This is not just talk - since I have been Minister, I have announced the establishment of six new schools. The total number of teachers will need to grow by 3,700. Huge capital requirements are required. Well over $1 billion of additional capital will be needed to ensure that educational opportunities are available to all kiwis. Their future prosperity will be built on these educational opportunities.

The second goal is to complete the reforms to the qualifications framework and the curriculum in a way that works both for the sector and for New Zealanders as a whole

We face a huge challenge in meeting our goals. Education will always be a very resource hungry area. But lets not kid ourselves - we spend an enormous amount on education already. In the coming year we will spend about six thousand million - ie. six billion - dollars on education. Over $16 million a day is spent each and every day in this portfolio area. Funding for special education for example has quadrupled since 1990. Funding will continue to increase in the years ahead. It demonstrates that we recognise the fundamental importance of education. While we do, we also must be reasonable and responsible too. It will not be easy.

There will never be enough resources to meet every call and special plea from the sector for this or that programme. We must make priorities on the resources and we have to convince the public - especially parents - that our priorities are the right ones. That their money is being spent wisely.

No matter how well we do that, there will always be issues. No doubt from time to time arguments will arise. Many times even people in the sector will disagree. I have invited the sector, all sections of it, to work together to address the issues that are there in front of us now. Confrontational politics may seem exciting, but at the end of day, it achieves little by way of real progress. We see more heat than light. Education is too important not to achieve progress, too important for the future of New Zealand to be bogged down in tit for tat claims and counter claims. We cannot afford to get it wrong. I want a balanced debate. Part of that balance must give recognition for the positives that are being achieved. We tend to hear only the negative side. Any honest appraisal of our education system would have to say that the New Zealand education system is of very high quality, and the curriculum and qualifications reform programme we launched in New Zealand a few years ago is overwhelmingly a positive for our country.

We should be shouting from the rooftops about our achievements. They are many and varied. They go from the earliest stages of a childs life through the full spectrum of tertiary and post tertiary education. Many countries look at what we have achieved and envy us.

In 1992 the Government established a very successful Parents as First Teachers pilot programme. I visited two of the 100 Wairarapa families on Parents as First Teachers just a week ago. There can be no doubt that Parents as First Teachers is very positive for the families involved. I invite anybody, no matter how cynical, to visit those families and not come to that same conclusion. The Parents as First Teachers programme is being expanded to 9,000 families nationwide in 1997. The National Government intends to increase participation in the programme until all families have the opportunity to be involved.

We are also committed to ensuring that all families who seek it have access to early childhood education. We have increased early childhood funding by over 60% since 1990. Participation in the early childhood sector has expanded now to cover 90% of three and four year olds.

I have already talked about the huge challenge we face with the growth of our school rolls. We are also concerned to identify at an early stages, students who are at risk of not succeeding in schools. A little additional assistance earlier will save a lot of money later. We should not allow the huge growth in rolls to obscure our vision to improve the quality of education. One way we are doing that is by lowering teacher:pupil ratios. In March last year, the Government choose to spend tens of millions to employ 1,014 new teachers over and above that required to meet the demands of roll growth. Those 1,014 new teachers are there to give schools better teacher/pupil ratios - a very positive development.

The supply of adequate numbers of teachers is being addressed with a number of initiatives - new refresher training opportunities, for example. College of Education intakes have increased by nearly 50% since 1990. We have put in place a programme to encourage long term relievers to relocate within New Zealand.

The current average age of teachers is eight years older than that of the average age of the workforce generally. We need to bring an infusion of new young blood into the teaching profession. We want bright and enthusiastic young graduates in front of our classes. To do this we must be able to pay good teachers more and the best teachers and specialist teachers much more if we are to both recruit and retain them in the teaching profession. We actually want to do that.

We have moved to put in place a respected modern qualifications framework that appropriately recognises achievement for this day and age.

We need to build public understanding of what the final qualifications framework will achieve. To some extent it is a matter of people getting used to new terms. Where a young person says they are an apprentice, people will know what they mean. We have to build that same level of understanding for units and credits and qualifications in our new framework.

The new framework offers a major advantage over that we have had in the past. Credit can be obtained for prior learning when a new course is being undertaken, so that that course do not have to be repeated just because the trainee is learning in a new area. For example, someone who has done a welding course or unit will be able to use that in various vocations such as in plumbing or machining. In a world where it is increasingly recognised that the old 40 years in the same job career structure is a thing of the past, where people have to move between vocations as technology and society advance, this kind of qualification system is the only way forward. Already we have had some considerable success in building up vocational training to meet the demands of our modern economy. The Skill New Zealand strategy allows each industry to manage its training and determine the content of its qualifications. Around 70% of the occupations in our workforce are now covered by one or other of our industry training organisations. By the end of this year, there will be around 30,000 New Zealanders - more than ever before - in apprenticeship type training.

At the tertiary level of there have been huge increases in the numbers attending over the last few years. We have moved from 108,700 equivalent fulltime students in 1990 to 142,961 in 1996. Participation in tertiary education and training by those groups from within society previously more notable for their absence from tertiary education is now rapidly increasing. Participation by Maori in tertiary studies is up by 158%. Participation by Pacific Island peoples is up 119%. Women are now the majority on tertiary campuses.

I hope I have established in your minds the extent and the nature of the Governments commitment to providing the young people of New Zealand with good learning opportunities. I also hope I have indicated the pressures and challenges that we need to address to achieve this. In spite of claims to the contrary, National is not so focused on economic issues that it is not interested in investing heavily in education - we do and we can prove it.

I trust we can shift the debate forward to looking at the issues of making our reforms throughout the sector work well and effectively -forward to see that we have a good strategy in place for dealing with the growth pressures that are on their way towards us now. We have to ensure adequate numbers of high quality and motivated teachers. We have to ensure good quality school management. We can be well and truly proud of what we have here in New Zealand in education. Our economic strength brought by some tough policy decisions over the last six years gives us the base upon which to afford our ambitious goals for a better future. Let us talk about a better future and a better education for all New Zealanders.