Step change is a step backwards

The “Step Change” report on Education misses the point that the only real way to lift educational performance is to address underlying inequality, the Green Party said today.

The report recommends a voucher system which would allow the parents and families of the top 5 percent and bottom 20 percent of students to move their children to different schools.

“The report ignores the fact that educational performance is primarily influenced in the home, not at school,” Green Party Education Spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said.

“The biggest influence on how well kids do at school is their family background. They do best if they come from a home with a decent income, with family members who value education and had a positive education experience themselves.

“Too many kiwi kids don’t live in a home like that. Many are coming to school hungry. Until we address inequality, moving vulnerable kids around to different schools will only disrupt their learning,” Ms Delahunty said.

Ms Delahunty said the report identified some great schools where good work was being done to address the learning needs of both gifted and underperforming kids.

“But rather than pulling kids out of their schools and concentrating all our attention on a few schools, we should be modelling the success of these schools across the board.”

Ms Delahunty said the report was thinly veiled Act policy.

“It’s a real worry that Act seems to be driving the Government’s agenda in education. This is radical right-wing policy in disguise as a cross-party report.

“The legitimate Maori Party concern that schools need to be more culturally appropriate can be addressed without a voucher system. Cultural appropriateness should be a goal of all schools,” Ms Delahunty said.

Ms Delahunty was also concerned that the report proposed to use flawed new National Standards as the measure for determining who would have access to the voucher system.

“Many parents and teachers have grave concerns about National Standards. They are worried that reporting the results in league tables could undermine schools in vulnerable communities. Combining this with a voucher system that privileges well-resourced private schools will be a disaster for public education,” Ms Delahunty said.