Last Stop Parliament for National Standards Bus Tour

NZEI’s National Standards school bus tour makes its final stop at Parliament on Wednesday 31 March.

The bus has spent nine weeks on the road, visiting hundreds of schools and communities from Kaitaia to Bluff. It has been taking the message “Trial National Standards not our Kids”

NZEI President Frances Nelson says “when we started it’s fair to say that awareness about National Standards was pretty low but the bus tour has changed that. It has created the debate the government should have allowed New Zealanders to have about this policy before bulldozing it through.”

“The overwhelming message is that New Zealanders – parents, principals, teachers, boards and the public have serious concerns about what is untried and untested policy with no evidence it will raise student achievement,” she says.

That concern will be demonstrated at parliament at 12.30pm. Representatives will march and symbolically hold up hundreds of placards representing school communities which have signed statements to the Prime Minister expressing concern about the Standards and calling for them to be trialled.

The call for a trial is not only supported by NZEI and school communities. It has also been endorsed by leading academics, the New Zealand Principals Federation and many individual principals’ associations around the country.

Speakers at the event will be:

Frances Nelson – NZEI President

Keri Milne-Ihimaera – Principal Moerewa School and President of Aka Tokerau – Northland Maori Principals Association

Bruce Delamere – Board Chairperson Merivale School, Tauranga

Shannon Oswald – Teacher, New Windsor School, Auckland

Frances Nelson says March 31 marks the end of the bus tour but certainly not the end of the campaign.

“The implementation of National Standards is a shambles. We urge the government to stop, take a deep breath and listen to the concerns being voiced. It must put children’s learning first and make a sensible decision to trial and properly evaluate National Standards.”

ENDS

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