Come on Mrs Tolley – will schools have to moderate or not?

Education Minister Anne Tolley needs to come clean with schools and say whether under National Standards they will have to create added bureaucracy to ensure the standards they set are nationally consistent, Labour Party education spokesman Trevor Mallard said today.

Inter school moderation is essential to ensure student assessment is consistent.

“In the house today I asked Mrs Tolley whether schools would have to moderate with other schools or not under her government’s National Standards policy,” Trevor Mallard said.

“Her answer was that ‘they may’.

“How on earth can schools be expected to roll out the new regime when the minister obviously hasn’t thought through all the details?

“Or perhaps she is well aware of the answer and knows schools won’t like it.

“If the answer is that under the new regime schools do have to set up a new interschool moderation system, she knows this will take up more of teachers’ time and will divert their attention and school resources away from the classroom. And schools are being told not to expect additional funding for this from the Government.

“But if she answers by saying that schools already do this so there won’t be any additional burden, she is acknowledging that the standards system that is being replaced already does the job and her government’s regime will not add any value.

“Which is it Mrs Tolley?”

ENDS

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