New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association Annual Conference 2010

Venue: Brentwood Hotel, Kilbirnie, Wellington
Time: 1:00pm

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

Good afternoon everyone.

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 I’ve been 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 I acknowledge also the emotional toll it has taken on you, your families, your students, and your colleagues. Thank you sincerely for your efforts to restore a sense of normality to the young people of Canterbury during what I know has been a very trying time.

There’s another important issue I want to address before we continue. A few people in the education sector – and in Parliament – feel it’s their job to mislead you on my views about teachers.

Let me state for the record that I value and respect teachers and the important job that you all do in educating our children.

It’s perhaps no surprise that I feel that way. I come from a family of teachers. Both my mother and my father were teachers and my sister and brother are also qualified teachers. I’ve lived with the passion and dedication of your profession for most of my life.

I know that your job is enormously rewarding – but I’ve also witnessed how challenging it can be.

Every time you enter a classroom you carry with you both an extraordinary privilege and a huge responsibility: You have the power to shape the citizens of tomorrow.

So today let me congratulate all of you who put your best efforts and your hearts into our schools.

In shaping the workforce of tomorrow, you will play a vital part in making this country a better place.

In recent months too often the focus has been on the political differences between us. But I think it is important to put those differences into the context of our shared goals. We want the same thing. A great education for our children as we prepare them for the modern world. Like you, this Government has high aspirations for what our children and our country can achieve.

Today I want to take this opportunity to outline this Government’s priorities in education and our plans for working with you to do the very best for New Zealand’s young people. This includes Budget 2010 initiatives, the roll-out of our Youth Guarantee policy, and the outcomes of the Alternative Education Review.

But let me first address what is a very live issue. We meet at a time when pay negotiations between the Secretary for Education and your union have broken down. You are planning more strike action in the coming weeks.

I’m not about to undertake a detailed negotiation on the conference floor. As you know, the good faith provisions of employment legislation preclude me from discussing the details of pay bargaining. But what I can say, and what I want to be completely clear about, is that this Government is committed to negotiating a settlement with you and your members. We, like you, and like parents and students up and down the country, want to end the disruption so that our schools can get on with the business of educating our children.

We want you back at the negotiating table so that we can resolve these issues.

I am confident that can happen, and that the best interests of your members and of New Zealand as a whole will be served if your union and the Government’s negotiators put our heads together and talk these issues through.

I’d now like to turn to the big picture of what this Government is setting out to achieve.

As you will know we have come through the worst recession this country has experienced in 80 years in better shape than many other countries – partly due to the measures the Government took in Budget 2009 and partly due to the resilience shown by many New Zealanders.

But the recovery is slow and difficult. The Government finances face ongoing challenges and simply put, we are spending more than we earn. Over the next few years, Government debt is set to increase significantly. Budget 2010 makes progress in getting back to surplus sooner. It will help the economy grow faster and deliver better living standards.

Despite the economic environment and a relatively small amount of new money, the Budget allocated an extra $1.4 billion to education over four years.

Let me recap where that new spending is going.

We’ve increased schools’ operational funding by 4 per cent, an additional $156 million.

We’ve made a significant investment in school infrastructure:

• $350 million in the Budget for new funding 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 for the infrastructure stimulus as part of Budget 2009.

• There’s $82 million towards remedial work on leaky school buildings.

• There’s over $48 million to continue the School Network Upgrade Project, bringing the school Broadband spend to $150 million in total.

• And we funded the $90 million staffing shortfall that concerned so many of you last year.

The Budget also continued the investment needed to support the Government’s Youth Guarantee policy.

I think it’s useful to restate the motivation behind this policy.

New Zealand’s education system is among the best in the world. But at the same time, it leaves too many students behind.

Our secondary schooling system currently works very well for students who are well suited to academic study.

It doesn’t always work so well for students who are better suited to practical, hands-on learning and qualifications.

Too many of these students are disengaging from education and leaving school without qualifications.

We know that in 2009, around 27 percent of school leavers left with less than NCEA Level 2, the minimum foundation skill required for employment and tertiary study. We also know that around 14 per cent left without Level 1, and although results for Maori and Pasifika students have improved a little over recent years, a high proportion of these young people leave school with low or no qualifications. Maori and Pasifika students are also disproportionately more likely to not be in education, employment, or training between the ages of 15 and 19.

So we have to make our system more relevant to the 16 and 17 year olds who currently disengage from school.

As I discussed with you last year, the Youth Guarantee is about providing more options for all young New Zealanders who have disengaged from the school system. It’s a real challenge to engage these students in training opportunities that support them to get the skills and qualifications they need.

This year as part of the Youth Guarantee, there are 2,000 places available in vocational courses at tertiary institutions for 16 and 17 year olds, free of charge, enabling them to get level 1 to 3 qualifications for the career of their choice. There have been some early signs of success.

Let me describe for you what the Youth Guarantee has meant from a young person’s perspective. Two teenagers in Whangarei, Munro Pomare and Sydney Chapman, have been praising the Youth Guarantee programme at North Tec. Munro says he enjoys the practical learning and likes being treated like an adult. Sydney says he finds it easier to learn on the Youth Guarantee programme, and recommends it to other teenagers. Both young men have now set their sights on an automotive apprenticeship. I met more of the students at North Tec. They’d all quit school but were back learning and training in a different environment, and succeeding.

That’s some very encouraging feedback from the people who matter the most.

Next year and in following years, the number of dedicated places like these will increase to 2,500, thanks to funding in Budget 2010.

The Youth Guarantee will also be supported by a range of initiatives to help our schools respond better for the less academically-inclined students. The MIT Tertiary High School is a great example of the kind of innovation that is possible, Earlier this year I had the privilege of attending the opening of the new High School, which is a New Zealand first, with around 350 students. I understand it is developing well, and certainly I saw an excited, enthusiastic group of young people enjoying their learning.

Trades Academies are another example. Nine Trades Academies will open next year, giving Years 11 to 13 students a head-start in training for industry-related qualifications.

These Trades Academies will provide school-aged students opportunities to undertake trades and technology programmes and they will be based on partnerships between schools, tertiary institutions, industry training organisations and employers.

Longer term, we are looking to provide a wider range of alternative pathways for senior secondary students under an expanded Youth Guarantee.

It must be much easier for young people to move between secondary and tertiary learning. We want to see all 16 and 17 year olds have access to a programme of study that doesn’t have fees, that meets their needs, and that leads to a worthwhile, nationally recognised qualification.

This will mean challenges to the funding and the structure of senior secondary schooling – as we focus on student needs and not “the system”. But to ensure all students get their opportunities we have to find ways to support them.

I welcome your feedback on how you think schools can offer different pathways for students, or to share with me some of the innovative projects you might be pursuing.

As many of you have told me, improving student engagement is essential to raising achievement. The Ministry has begun a fundamental re-think of its approach to student attendance, engagement, and behaviour as a foundation for better educational outcomes. Findings from last year’s behaviour summit, the District Truancy Service evaluation, and the Alternative Education review are contributing to this work.

This year we have refocused $45 million to support the roll out of the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action Plan. This was developed by the Ministry and eight education sector groups, including the PPTA, following last year’s behaviour summit.

As you well know, there is no silver bullet when it comes to student behaviour, and I understand you have a paper to that effect here at your conference, however, there’s growing evidence about what is effective. We need to act earlier in a child’s life, and earlier in the life of the problem. We need to balance our efforts in prevention as well as responding to crisis, but most importantly we need to work together.

As part of the Plan, five thousand teachers will receive training in effective classroom management, and staff from 400 schools will receive training in how to promote positive behaviour and lift student engagement.

To date 89 schools are taking part in the initiative, and many are finding that working in geographical clusters is effective. For instance, Melville High School and Fairfield College in Hamilton are linking with contributing intermediate schools. I was in Waitara last week and their cluster comprises local primary, intermediate and high schools and they’re finding that extremely helpful for consistent practice.

Families also have a very important role to play, and at least twelve thousand parents in at-risk families will be supported in lifting their parenting skills.

As these programmes progress we should see stronger parenting, greater supports for teachers and schools, and confident staff managing student behaviour in classroom and school settings.

This will take time of course and schools should not be expected to cope on their own when they are facing challenges now. I’m working with the Ministers of Health, Social Development and Justice to look at how we can build strong supports across agencies for those with challenging behaviour.

Engagement is also about ensuring young people see relevance in their learning.

As you will be aware this year we have been rolling out National Standards in primary and intermediate schools. I am pleased to say that the vast majority of schools are getting on with the task of implementing the Standards with many already reporting to parents, which they will do at least twice a year.

ERO’s first six monthly report reinforces this. It shows that 80 per cent of schools are making good progress with implementing National Standards. These findings reflect what parents, principals, and teachers up and down the country have been telling me.

Parents have made it clear that they want this plain language reporting on their child’s progress, and advice on how they can help with their child’s learning.

Many principals and teachers have told me of students arriving at secondary school with nowhere near the skill levels they need in reading, writing and maths, and the enormous strain it puts on their resources to work intensively with these young people just to get them to year 9 skill levels.

The National Standards mean students arrive at secondary schools with nationally consistent assessments, and in time, with higher achievement in literacy and numeracy.

As you will know the Ministry, with assistance from education sector groups, has also been reviewing Alternative Education. We want to give the young people in Alternative Education the opportunity to achieve better results and qualifications. We also want to make sure they have greater support getting back into mainstream education.

Our response is to make Alternative Education more effective and more focused on education outcomes, not just life skills.

Last month my colleague Dr Pita Sharples and I announced that funding for Alternative Education will increase to $19.5 million from next year alongside changes which will see Alternative Education better meet the needs of students.

This is the first increase in funding for Alternative Education since 2000. The needs of these students have been ignored for many years, and they deserve the opportunity to succeed.

From next year each Alternative Education provider will be required to involve a registered teacher to provide advice, professional guidance and support to non-teacher tutors.

Providers and Activity Centres will also need to supply the Ministry with information on student progress. This is vital if we are to measure the success of programmes being offered.

We are also providing some professional development to support and strengthen educational leadership and exit transitions. And ERO has released an excellent report on good practice in Alt Ed.

We are also transforming the Resource Teachers Learning and Behaviour Service, to ensure there is a consistent and cohesive service across the country that provides an effective supportive network of RTLB provision for schools.

Our investment in the RTLB Service is not insignificant at $70 million, and we have to be confident that it is delivering the support required.

The proposed changes will see the new service better aligned with other special education services and support organisations like the Alternative Education National Body.

We want to lift the professionalism of this service, provide career paths to leadership and/or specialisation in secondary schooling, Maori and Pasifika and autism. We are also keeping the service school-based.

In conclusion, let me repeat that like you, the Government is ambitious for our education system. We share your passion for unleashing the great potential of young New Zealanders.

We have high expectations of students, of ourselves as a Government, and you as teachers and principals.

We want to work with New Zealand’s teachers to deliver a high standard of education for our students that equips them with the knowledge, skills and values to be successful citizens.

Nothing should get in the way of that. So, today let me thank you for joining the Government in our mission to make our education system as great as it can be, for every single New Zealand child.

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

Thank you.

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