Minister contradicting Ministry on school league tables

The Minister of Education Hekia Parata is contradicting the Ministry on the issue of publishing school league tables, the Green Party said today.

The Ministry said this morning that their position has always been they have no intention to publish league tables even though the Education Minister Hekia Parata made a statement in February saying she would consider setting up a league table for parents to compare schools.

"The Minister is pushing a flawed policy against the views of her Ministry," Green Party spokesperson on education Catherine Delahunty said.

"Publishing of school league tables will have a negative impact on schools, communities and students.

"The data that schools send to the Ministry is not comparable between schools, and publishing league tables to compare them will only mislead parents and could result in families leaving communities to switch schools for no sound reason.

"National standards don't work and the thought that after being pushed onto schools they will also be used to falsely compare schools is a huge worry.

"The Minister needs to listen to her advisers who know that publishing league tables will lead to worse outcomes for our kids as schools will be forced to focus on the wrong things.

"League tables are for sports teams not for our children's learning."