An attempt to ramp up support with a set of dodgy data

28 September 2012

An attempt to ramp up support with a set of dodgy data

NZEI says the publication of primary schools’ National Standards data on a Ministry of Education website is just an attempt for the Government to ramp up support after a series of failed education policies.

“It has failed on class sizes, it is failing in Christchurch and now it has failed to bring any intelligent debate to lifting student achievement,” NZEI president Ian Leckie says.

“So what is this really about? It is a vote-catching attempt to ramp up support after a series of failures.

“Is this just a backdoor attempt to bring in performance pay for teachers? It certainly has nothing to do with improving kids’ learning and making every school a good school.

“How can you base anything on a set of such irresponsible, ropey National Standards data?”

The National Standards data shows there is a correlation between low decile schools and student achievement.

“Well there are no great surprises there. Education professionals know this – there is a shocking rate of child poverty and disadvantage which affects educational achievement – deal with this, rather than continually blaming the schools and teachers.

“The Government says this is about lifting quality, but we say the Government needs to look at the real reason kids are not achieving as they should be.”

NZEI National President Ian Leckie says that the only good to come out of the publication of the data today is to show that the education sector was right in its opposition to unreliable and unmoderated data being released.

The Ministry has acknowledged this itself in its disclaimer on the website before data can be accessed.

ENDS

© Scoop Media