Hon Anne Tolley
Minister of Education

27 September 2010
Speech

New Zealand Educational Institute Annual Meeting 2010
Venue: Energy Events Centre, Rotorua
Time: 1:45pm

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā hau e whā. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Good afternoon everyone and thank you Frances for your introduction.

I’d like to begin today by acknowledging those of you who are from Canterbury. During my visits to Christchurch over the past few weeks I have seen for myself the damage caused by the earthquake. I’ve seen some heartbreaking scenes, but was hugely impressed by the dedication and determination of Canterbury principals, teachers, board members and Ministry of Education staff as they worked to get schools open for students.

Many of the teachers and trustees I spoke with were rallying around their schools despite serious issues with their own homes. I know you will have experienced not only the physical trauma of the quake, but also acknowledge the emotional toll it has taken on you, your families, your students, and your colleagues. Thank you for your efforts to restore a sense of ‘normality’ for the young people of Canterbury during what I know has been a very trying time.

The next thing I want to do is set the record straight. A few people in the education sector – and in Parliament – feel it’s their job to mislead you on my views about teachers.

Well, I want to make something clear. I value and respect teachers and the important job that you all do in educating our children.

I come from a family of teachers – both my mother and my father were teachers and my sister and brother are also qualified teachers – the daily challenges and rewards of the teaching profession have been an integral part of my upbringing.

I thank you sincerely for your efforts.

Sometimes when we disagree, it can be seen as if we’re talking past each other. But actually we want the same thing. A great education for our children as we prepare them for the modern world. It’s vital that we don’t lose sight of that common goal.

So today I thought I’d talk to you about this Government’s investment in education and update you on the work we are doing around the implementation of National Standards. I’ll also talk about some of the changes we’re making to Early Childhood Education, so that you understand why we’re making the changes.

As a result of the measures the Government took in Budget 2009 and due to the resilience shown by many New Zealanders, we have come through the worst recession this country has experienced in 80 years in better shape than many other countries, but our recovery is slow and difficult.

The Government finances face ongoing challenges. Simply put, we are spending more than we earn and, over the next few years, Government debt is set to increase significantly. Budget 2010 makes progress in getting back to surplus sooner, it aims to help the economy grow faster and so, deliver better living standards.

Despite the economic environment, Government invested a substantial amount in education as part of the Budget with an additional $300 million in the 2010/11 year. We are focused on education – it forms a significant part of our economic plan.

In all, the Budget allocated an extra $1.4 billion to education over four years, as we continue to focus on frontline services to help lift student achievement.

Total Vote Education spending will rise to $12 billion in 2010/11, but because every single dollar is precious we are making sure funding is directed into those priority areas which make the biggest difference to students.

This includes:
a 4 per cent increase in schools’ operational funding, or an additional $156 million over four years.

$350 million for new funding over four years for school property. This includes funding for building new schools and improving existing school buildings, and comes on top of Government funding of more than $500 million last year.

Over $48 million this year in building ultra-fast broadband under the School Network Upgrade Project, part of the $150 million allocated for this.

We’ve also invested another $15 million into the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action Plan, to expand the training and delivery of programmes for teachers and parents.

And, of course, an additional $107 million into early childhood education, lifting expenditure in the coming year to $1.3 billion.

This Government is serious about education.

We believe every single young New Zealander deserves the opportunity to reach their potential.

To do this, they must have the literacy and numeracy skills they need to succeed in the 21st Century.

As Education Minister, my absolute priority is to ensure all young New Zealanders have the reading, writing and maths skills they need to succeed. This is essential to raising achievement and delivering the education outcomes we all want for our young people.

And National Standards are a tool to make sure this can happen.

I’d like to read from just one of the many emails I have recently received from principals, about their experience with the Standards. The principal says:

“Teachers have learnt a lot from collaborative work and teasing out the process of making sound judgements. Well done for this work – it is all coming together well at this school.”

And this is something that has been repeated many times to me as I visit schools around the country.

I want to thank you for your hard work over the past nine months and for the progress being made in implementing the Standards. I have great confidence in the professionalism and expertise of teachers and principals to get this right.

Everywhere I go in New Zealand, parents tell me how delighted they are with their plain-language reports, and the conversations on how their child is doing at school. And much of the credit for that must go to you, the teachers.

We also recognise that to ensure teachers have the tools and techniques they need to lift student achievement they must also have the support they need.

As you’ll know I’ve asked the Ministry to redesign its approach to professional development for principals and teachers. The Government invests $86 million a year in this area, and we need to make it much more targeted, much more responsive, to make sure it helps teachers and schools to lift student achievement, in a way that meets their needs.

This recognises that you, our teaching professionals, want to do a good job for your students, and deserve quality support to keep up with the latest developments in effective teaching, leadership and assessment practices.

The Ministry is also making significant changes to the way it operates. Up until now it has largely concentrated on administering the system, but from now on the Ministry will have a much stronger focus on frontline support in and alongside schools - something principals and teachers have told me is the kind of direct assistance that they have needed for a long time.

We’ve listened to concerns from teachers and principals about the students who are really struggling. With the roll-out of the Standards well underway, the next step is getting those students who have been identified as requiring extra support, back on track.

To ensure we are helping those students who need it the most at least 50 expert practitioners from the Ministry and the education sector will be appointed to work closely with schools and build strong relationships.

These experts will have proven ability in lifting student achievement, and will give specially-designed support to schools to meet the specific needs of their students and teachers. They will use student data obtained through National Standards to assess where support will be most effective, and make sure schools get that support much earlier

We also announced an extra $36 million which will go towards new intervention programmes for students who need more support.

We need tailored and concentrated support for students and teachers. This could include access to a specialist literacy teacher or specialist resources for maths.

We will continue to work with you on the design and effectiveness of this support.

The Ministry has also developed guidance on including National Standards targets in school charters for 2011 and this will be rolled out to schools shortly.

There have also been questions about teacher judgements - OTJs. I know that you use them effectively now, and I am confident in your ability and expertise to continue to use different types of information and data from a range of sources to identify what students know, how much progress they have made, and what they need to learn next. A single score on a single test cannot be more accurate than that.

We can improve the consistency of judgements through moderation. Moderation should seek to build a shared understanding of the curriculum, the learning progressions and the National Standards, and moderation should be a professional activity as teachers establish learning communities.

The Ministry can assist you with this:

They’ve aligned assessment tools to the Standards

Student Management systems have been enhanced to show assessment results for each student alongside OTJs

Online moderation will be available enabling teachers to share practices

And good practices of moderation already underway in schools will be published online.

This isn’t just about getting support to the almost one in five children who are leaving school without the basic skills they need.

It’s also about raising the bar for achievement for all students and identifying those children who are doing well but who can do even better, by setting achievable goals.

And the recently released National Education Monitoring Project highlighted this.

It found that maths performance in primary schools for Year 8 students has not improved for twelve years, and that in some particular areas there has been a decline in performance.

Yes, our top performers are among the best in the world, but we cannot continue to stand still – because the world our children will face as adults is changing dramatically, requiring higher skill levels.

We will continue to monitor and evaluate the National Standards throughout the three-year implementation, to make sure they are working as they should be, and you’ll be aware of the independent technical group of experts which is providing me with direct advice.

In response to conversations I’ve had with teachers and principals I’m also establishing a National Standards Sector Advisory Group. All of the relevant sector groups, including NZEI, have been invited to take part, to enable representatives to share experiences and be more involved, and to have constructive input throughout the implementation

To ensure the group receives practical advice, four extra places will be available. They could be filled by principals, teachers or advisors.

And I can tell you that the feedback I have received about this group has been fantastic. Many principals and teachers have put their names forward to be a part of it, because they want to share their ideas and expertise, and discuss how their own schools are successfully implementing the Standards.

I look forward to meaningful and ongoing dialogue with your NZEI representatives and other sector groups on National Standards and how to get this right.

Our students deserve nothing less.

And I’ll give the last words on National Standards to another principal, who says:

"I am so pleased we haven’t had to use a “one test” system like they did in Britain. Reporting against the National Standards has caused us to “tweak” what we have currently been doing, and has resulted in the parents getting information presented in a way that they can understand more readily. We also included a lot of information, more than we used to, on how the parents can help with the “next steps” so that if a child is currently below the standard, it can now be more of a concerted attempt between child, teacher, and parent to get them up to the standard.

"I would have preferred a more gradual journey into implementing the standards…but other than that it has been a positive experience. Parents are happy that they know exactly where their students are, and what they can do to help."

Before I finish today I’d like to talk about early childhood education and emphasise that this Government is absolutely committed to high-quality early childhood education and the benefits it provides for our youngest New Zealanders.

Budget 2010 made an additional $107 million investment in ECE.

In the coming year we’re investing a total of $1.3 billion in this area. We’ve expanded the 20 Hours ECE policy to include kohanga reo, playcentres, and 5-year-olds, and over the next four years we’re also investing $91.8 million to boost participation in areas where large numbers of children are missing out.

In total, Government spending on ECE has trebled in the last few years. But this escalating cost has not delivered the rise in participation which was promised by the previous Government. In fact, there has been hardly any rise at all – less than one per cent.

As a result, substantial changes to funding priorities had to be made to release funds to address participation rates in areas of the greatest need, and to manage the sky-rocketing and unsustainable costs.

From February 2011, teacher-led ECE centres will continue to receive financial incentives to increase the proportion of their staff who are registered teachers to reach the Government’s target of 80 per cent registered teachers by 2012.

A $46.7 million cost adjustment, a 2.4 per cent increase in simpler terms, over four years will help providers meet increasing costs and reduce the need for fee increases.

Currently only 64 per cent of staff in ECE services are qualified and registered teachers.

That’s why we pushed the target out to 2012, because if we’d kept the previous Government’s target of 80 per cent by this year, about 1000 services would have had to close.

So we are actually trying to lift the number of qualified teachers in teacher-led services, and spread qualified teachers across the sector as too many of our services are struggling even to reach fifty per cent.

In education, as in all Government portfolios, funding is limited. We have to invest in areas which make the biggest difference. In early childhood this is all about finding the best way to increase participation among those children who are currently missing out.

In some areas 25 per cent of Pasifika children and 20 per cent of Maori children are missing out, so the children who we know will benefit the most are the least likely to take part.

We’re launching five intensive community-led projects, beginning in Waitakere and Northland next month, to make an additional 3500 places available for children.

The new programmes will build on the experience of the Counties Manukau participation project, which has placed hundreds of extra children into new, quality early childhood services. This involves building new services, and funding supported playgroups, street side playgroups and play days in local communities, to attract families into ECE

And we’ll continue to focus on early childhood education to make sure it reaches the children who need it.

Education is vital to the Government. Every decision we make is focused on making the biggest difference for students’ learning. In a difficult economic environment, we have to invest in areas that best meet the needs of our young people.

And I believe we are making the right decisions.

It’s up to all of us to make sure that every single young New Zealander has the opportunity to reach their potential.

We are ambitious for our children, and have high expectations of our curriculum and of quality teaching – to deliver a high standard of education for our students that equips them with the knowledge, skills and values they need to be successful.

Thank you for your time today – I wish you all the best for the remainder of your conference.

No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, huri noa te ruma, kia ora mai tatou katoa. Thank you.

ENDS

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