Literacy and IT Focus for New Minister

Education Minister Nick Smith, in his first major education speech, to the Secondary Principals Conference in Rotorua, today stated that literacy and information technology would be his major priorities this year.

"Literacy is the base foundation of all learning. NZ ranks well in international comparisons of literacy and our brightest students are some of the best in the world. The bad news is that NZ has one of the highest proportions of students with very low scores. In days gone by there might have been a place in society for those who could not read or write. Those days are gone. My top priority this year will be the Government's goal of having all nine year olds able to read, write and do maths by 2005. It must be backed up with clear accountability measures, a refocused curriculum, and innovative programmes in the home, school and community that will ensure New Zealand achieves the goal."

"My second priority is information technology and making sure we equip our young people for the information age. The pace of change is awesome and our schools are not keeping up. Information technology is no longer an optional add-on to the curriculum that can be funded from cake stalls and school fairs. Nor is it enough to have a computer studies class. Information technology must become part of all core subjects. Equipping schools with hardware, software and cabling is important, but the greatest challenge is in upskilling our teaching professionals to the demands of the information age."

Mr Smith also outlined six further priority areas in education including improving teacher quality, confronting social issues impacting on schools, better assessing pupil learning, sorting out school qualifications, meeting the needs of special students and enhancing school self management.

"The success of our education system is totally dependent on the quality of the person standing in front of the classroom. Our teacher standards are high but we must strive to drive them higher. In the early childhood sector we need to move to requiring formal qualifications. As in the primary sector, we must link higher pay for secondary teachers to professional standards. We need to raise the standards of teacher training and we've got to improve the checks provided by the Teacher Registration Board."

The Minister focussed on parenting programmes, social workers in schools, and providing better programmes for suspended pupils. He also flagged the intention of Government to proceed with National Assessment to provide better information on student learning. He also outlined his plans to review the Education Act and have it more focussed on pupil learning.

"There is so much in our public education system that is good. My challenge is to build on that and to strive for excellence."