A bill is set to end schools’ ability to opt out of international maths and reading tests and accelerate the process of intervention in underperforming institutions. It will also empower a new property agency to mandate that schools allocate funds for building works.
Education Minister Erica Stanford stated that the Education and Training (System Reform) Bill would guarantee that the education system aligns with and advances the government’s key priorities. A key focus, she explained, was improving the quality of initial teacher education.
That section of the bill would facilitate the recent changes to the Teaching Council announced earlier this month. They included transferring the council’s responsibility for teacher education and teachers’ professional standards to the Education Ministry and altering the composition of its governing body to consist of only three representatives elected by teachers alongside four to six appointees selected by the minister.
The bill would mandate the Education Review Office to inform the ministry and minister within two working days if it determines a school “may be of serious concern,” followed by a report and recommended statutory actions within 28 working days.
The bill would create a new Crown agency called the New Zealand School Property Agency to oversee school property management. This agency would have the authority to recover maintenance and repair costs and require school boards to take necessary actions.
The bill would mandate the Education Ministry to periodically review curriculum areas and enable the creation of distinct curriculum statements for different groups of schools.
The bill would eliminate the obligation for school boards to consult their communities regarding the health curriculum, a change recommended by the Education Review Office last year. Additionally, it would end the option for state, charter, and private schools to opt out of assessments like the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, a response to the high refusal rates seen in the 2022 tests.
The Educational Institute, Te Riu Roa, described the bill as a bulldozer, warning that it would greatly expand ministerial control over the school system and politicise education.
“What we are seeing is what we’ve seen in the curriculum changes – a government hell-bent on making a one-size-fits-all education system and controlling it in its entirety, without thought for the diversity and needs of our tamariki and our communities,” it said.
“We cannot see in any of the proposed changes a world where tamariki, kaiako or their whānau will be better off.”