Jan Tinetti Labour MP

The National Party has announced its education policy and it is causing a lot of concern within the education sector.

After three years of Covid-19 disruptions, schools are finally settling down and National wants to throw that all up in the air with major disruptions to learning and underinvestment. National's education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough few years, certainty and stability.

National's policy is light on detail, they haven't said how much their changes will cost, how they will resource them and what their commitments to teachers' pay is. Forcing children to do an hour each of reading, writing and maths every day isn't going to make them enjoy it or learn better, and more intensive testing isn't going to make school a place where they want to be. It looks like the National Party want to bring back their failed experiment of National Standards.

National's track record on education is one of serious underinvestment, rundown schools and classrooms and stagnant teachers' pay, which has resulted in teacher shortages and a demoralised workforce. Nothing in National's education policy shows they are prepared to back our kids and lift outcomes, or put up the funding to seriously invest in their future.

Labour has invested in our children, upgraded nearly every school in the country, improved teachers' pay and introduced programmes that help parents and make kids want to be at school. Labour has a plan to properly fund education and make sure it works for every student. Schools need certainty and stability now more than ever.