Standards publishing will set back education

The publishing today of primary school league tables based on unreliable data will be used as a defacto league table and is a big step backwards for education in New Zealand, Green Party education spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said today.

A number of New Zealand media organisations have collated nationwide results from National Standards data and published them. This is the first time National Standards results have been made public.

"Treating education as if it is a competitive sport is not the way forward for primary school education," said Ms Delahunty.

"Parents want information on all aspects of their child's achievement.

"The moderation tool for the standards won't be finished until 2014 so the data published today is completely misleading.

"Schools throughout New Zealand are tackling complex issues many relating to wider socio-economic problems. Some schools are achieving amazing results that are not captured in the way the National Standards data is collated.

"The publishing of these standards today fails to take these issues into account.

"The Government's ideological policies and the desire by some in the media to come up with ranking systems will harm the long term educational prospects of our children."