Trevor Mallard
Education Spokesperson

17 August 2010 Media Statement

Tolley ‘takes the cake’ with extraordinary claim

Education Minister Anne Tolley’s claim today that 80 percent of schools are working well with national standards takes the cake for its audacity, says Labour Education spokesperson Trevor Mallard.

“The opposite is actually the case --- 80 percent of schools are still not well prepared to implement National’s quirky standards,” Trevor Mallard said.

“It is astonishing that we are more than halfway through the school year, that national standards were implemented in February, and just 19 percent of schools, according to her figures, are well-prepared to implement the standards.

“What’s happening to students in the other schools who are still trying to come to terms with National’s tragic experiment?”

Trevor Mallard said some schools were always going to find it easier to adjust to National’s standards than others, so it was not surprising that 19 percent are well prepared.

“But it is a real concern that only 19 percent fall into that category. Another 61 percent of schools are underway, but there’s a big difference between being underway to implementing the standards and actually implementing them well.

“Anne Tolley’s claim is quite dishonest. If that’s the sort of standard she sets herself, then schools and parents can be really worried.

“Her programme has been rushed into schools, with no trial, and no willingness to listen to objections,” Trevor Mallard said.

“It’s August --- and 81 percent of schools are still not well-prepared to implement the standards. That’s the truth of it.”

ENDS

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