The new Labour government, continuing with its drive of scrapping many measures introduced by the previous National government, that the Party had pledged to scrap within first 100 days if they come to power, has scrapped the National Standards in primary schools.
The government is also on track to annul the National’s Family Incomes Package later this week.
Announcing the government decision earlier this morning, Minister for Education, Chris Hipkins said “The Government has taken the first steps to turn around a decline in educational achievement among Kiwi children.
“Today I am announcing that the Government has stopped National Standards and Nga Whanaketanga Rumaki Maori and will instead focus on the progress and achievement of all children across the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.
The Labour Party has been passionate about scrapping the National Standards, along with the teacher's unions, who believed that it did not serve any constructive purpose in either enhancing children’s learning or keeping parents informed about the progress of their children in schools.
However, the government would not be introducing any alternative plan immediately to replace the National Standards.
The Minister will be reporting back to the cabinet in September 2018 with a proposal for an alternative arrangement, thus leaving nine months with the government to come up with an appropriate system to replace National Standards.
“We will take the next few months to work with the sector, students, parents, whanau and iwi to develop a new approach for understanding progress across the curricula that will meet their needs, and contribute to the education system supporting the success of all students. I will report back to Cabinet by September 2018,” Mr Hipkins said.
The Minister also sighted the recently released international report indicating a drop in the reading levels of the New Zealand children to rationalise the government action.
“Last week’s international report showed that since National Standards were introduced in 2010 reading levels of New Zealand children have dropped to their lowest level on record. It made sobering reading.”
“Schools and parents have lost confidence in National Standards. They were too narrow, neither national nor standard, and did not do what the previous National government claimed they would do and lift the bar,” Mr Hipkins said.
Starting in 2018, schools will no longer be compelled to report annually on National Standards to the Ministry of Education.