FIVE STEPS BACKWARD

Education Minister Nick Smith is shocked and surprised at just how backward looking Labour's education policy has become following Helen Clark's address to the NZEI Conference today.

"If Labour gets their hands on the education lever, the sector will be thrown into reverse gear. They've become so much more backward focussed than I ever dreamed was possible. They are even promising to reverse some of their own initiatives of a decade ago. This is a policy written to gain union votes, not to advance children's education."

Reversal One "Labour promises to reverse bulk funding despite it being a compulsory feature of their own legislation passed in 1989. The reversal will disrupt 783 schools and 286,294 pupils, despite research showing it is working well and schools like the flexibility of the system."

Reversal Two "Labour promises to reverse the decision to allow schools to directly purchase their teacher professional development services. This means schools won't have choice and innovation will be discouraged. This is despite widespread support from colleges of education, school trustees and principals. Labour has again caved in to a few union members who don ?t want schools to have the choice of using someone else's services."

Reversal Three "Labour promises to scrap any form of national assessment. With every state in Australia, the UK and the majority of American and Canadian States having moved to nationally consistent measures of pupil achievement in literacy and numeracy over the last decade, Labour will be denying parents information provided in most western countries. Labour wants to fudge pupil achievement and avoid nationally consistent standards."

Reversal Four "Labour pledges to immediately halt the regulatory review. This will prevent innovation and stop the logical progression to schools self-managing property. They will also take away the opportunity to reduce red tape and compliance burdens in the education sector."

Reversal Five "In March, Labour had pledged to abolish the independent Education Review Office but is now fudging the issue saying it may be drawn back into the Ministry of Education. It was Labour that originally created the ERO in 1989."

"For over a decade, education policy has been about empowering parents, letting schools make decisions for themselves and being clear about the standards that need to be achieved. Labour won't trust principals and parents to make the best decisions for pupils, is going to give the power back to Wellington bureaucrats and has gone soft on standards. Children can only be the losers."