Bill English MP
National Party Education Spokesman

27 September 2006

Teachers vote no confidence in Labour

“Teachers at the PPTA conference have effectively delivered a vote of no confidence in Labour’s handling of the NCEA debacle and Steve Maharey’s management,” says National Party Education spokesman Bill English.

“Five years down the track, teachers at the conference are still saying there’s a long way to go before the bugs in NCEA are ironed out. That’s simply not good enough for students, and it won’t be good enough for their parents, either.”

The conference was discussing a recent poll of PPTA members which found about a third of teachers supported NCEA, one third did not, and the remainder still had concerns.

“Teachers have legitimate concerns about whether the external exams are reliable and fair, whether the internal assessment has integrity, and the effect of the credit system on student motivation.

“This is a crisis of confidence in one of our most important qualifications. Parents will be very worried, and they should voice that alarm to the Minister.”

Mr English says Labour has been in total denial about NCEA’s flaws.

“When the majority of teachers are unsure about whether NCEA is working properly some five years after its introduction, Mr Maharey needs to act with urgency.

“Instead of continually defending the obvious and numerous failures, he should be fixing them.

“That’s clearly the message teachers are sending and that’s the message parents should repeat.

“Many of the problems teachers raise can be solved, but the teachers I speak with are frustrated because their concerns continue to be ignored,” says Mr English.

ENDS

© Scoop Media