John Key should apologise to parents and ask Minister to stand aside

John Key must take responsibility for the class size debacle, apologise to New Zealand parents and instruct his Education Minister to stand aside, the Green Party said today.

"It's fantastic that the Government recognises its mistake and has made a full back-down over teacher class size increases," Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.

"But the Prime Minister needs to take responsibility for the mess he has left the education sector in.

"John Key has been 100 per cent behind this policy from the beginning and has continued to defend it even as the real impact of the cuts became known.

"He has destabilised the education system, lost the faith of the entire schools sector and caused enormous angst among New Zealand parents.

"It is now impossible for Ms Parata to continue as Education Minister when she has alienated the entire sector.

"But the whole responsibility for this mess should not rest on her shoulders.

"John Key should remove Ms Parata as minister and apologise to parents, teachers and children for his continual defence of the class size policy.

"For the sake of the education of New Zealand children, we need a fresh start where the voices of parents children and teachers are listened to.

"Mr Key should then instruct his new Minister to engage with the education sector in a respectful way in order to understand what schools and students really need.

"Nothing this Government has done has encouraged good teacher performance, which it claimed was its primary aim," Mrs Turei said.