Launch of the edCentre education portal

Launch of the edCentre education portal ,i>
Te Papa, Wellington

Good afternoon.

I am delighted my first official engagement as Associate Education Minister is to launch this new and exciting online gateway to education information.

And before I go any further I want to acknowledge Trevor. It is very humbling to pick up some of the responsibilities of a colleague who has done so much for the future of our young people.

His energy and vision have meant the success of many essential projects and initiatives. I'm sure edCentre is just such an initiative.

Thank you to everyone involved and welcome to all those here today who have taken time out of their busy schedules to attend this launch.

edCentre will be a powerful tool, created for parents and others who want to know more about education.

It has been developed as a direct response to calls from parents for an easier way to navigate the wealth of education information available on New Zealand government websites.

Tools like edCentre can help parents by providing access to the information they need to make good and informed decisions about their children’s – and their own – education.

edCentre promises simpler access – a single, tailored gateway to online information, which is clearly signposted with the needs of six different audiences in mind – parents, learners, educators, governance bodies, researchers and the wider community.

It will give people access to up-to-date material from 28 different education sector websites and portals. Our aim is for edCentre to grow and develop over time.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work of the education sector agencies involved in forming a most fruitful partnership to get this huge initiative off the ground.

Cross-sector collaboration is certainly not a new thing in New Zealand, but this is notably the first major website collaboration that has engaged the whole education sector.
I’m pleased to see representatives of those seven agencies here today – Career Services rapuara, the Education Review Office, the Ministry of Education, the National Library, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, the New Zealand Teachers Council, and the Tertiary Education Commission.

Your ongoing collaboration is vital for meeting the needs of all New Zealanders. Your stakeholders and audiences are increasingly demanding a joined-up approach. Tools like edCentre are examples of how you can show the connections and inter-relations of everything you do.

edCentre symbolises the government’s commitment to improving educational outcomes for all New Zealanders.

We are focused on investing in initiatives that raise student achievement and improves quality teaching and learning. In the past five years alone we have added an extra 2,600 teachers to classrooms, over and above those needed to match roll growth.

Since 1999 we've increased overall school operational funding per-pupil by an average of 13.3 percent in real terms. By 2008, total funding for education will have increased by over 50 percent since Labour became the Government.

We're also investing heavily in information and communication technologies: $48million on connecting schools to the internet via Project Probe; $27milion on antivirus software; and we are investing close to $43million on other information technology initiatives such as Laptops for Teachers and professional development programmes.

These will help our education system as it strives to meet the needs of diverse cultures and a wide range of learner needs, from early childhood through to adult learners.

There are now a multitude of learning pathways and learning opportunities, which are not confined to early childhood centres, schools and tertiary institutions but exist throughout the community and in the workplace.

The challenge for us all is to empower learners and communities with the information they need to make informed decisions so they can participate fully in learning throughout their lives.

Together we are striving to achieve real change in the education sector:
·by strengthening family involvement in learning
·by providing all New Zealanders with strong foundations for future learning, and
·by ensuring New Zealanders continue to engage in this learning.

Information and communication technologies give us yet another way to do this.

edCentre is a great starting point for anyone wanting information about education in New Zealand.

Parents and other audiences have a valuable role here. This is a tool for them, and we need to know that it is working. What do they find useful? What else do they want to know? Where can improvements be made?

User feedback will inform the portal’s future development, and enable the education agencies involved to customise information to those needing it.

User feedback will be the key to the portal’s continued success.

The portal is now live on the internet, so you will also be able to explore it more fully in your own time.

We are all committed to engaging parents in learning, and improving support for them, and others.

I hope they will reap the rewards of this exciting new tool, and find the help they need to make informed choices both for their children, and themselves.

I take great pleasure in launching edCentre – the online gateway to New Zealand education.

Thank you.