National standards are only an indicator of a child's achievement and suffer from a lack of consistency, says a Wanganui principal.
The comments follow an independent report which found teachers' use of the standards last year lacked dependability, ranking children's reading, writing and maths correctly only about 60 per cent of the time.
The report, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, was based on research involving 96 schools and reported improvements in student achievements must be treated with caution.
President of the Wanganui Principals' Association and the head of St Anne's Catholic School, Karl Zimmerman, said if national standards were not considered within the context of the whole learning at the school they were not the best indicator of a child's progress.
"Every year that standard moves up and the expectation moves up. Even if they're below, they can make huge steps but they may not get to that standard. The child needs to be looked at holistically."