A future where children are full and learn better: Willow-Jean Prime

Willow-Jean Prime and Chris Hipkins.

A child’s path in life shouldn’t be determined by how much their parents earn or whether they could focus in class because they are hungry.

Our children, our tamariki, our students, our ākonga – they are our greatest taonga.

If we want our kids to succeed in life, to grow up and have a job they love, be in good health and have a place to live, so much of that starts with getting a good education at school.

My vision for the future of education in New Zealand is that all kids get the opportunity to have a great start to life through learning.

I want an education system that supports our students to be the best they can be, regardless of where they live and how much their household earns.

To do that, we need an education system that recognises not all children arrive at the school gates the same.

Some arrive cold, hungry and without shoes. Some struggle to concentrate in class. Some leave feeling like they’re not good enough.

We must do better by our kids if we want our country to do better; we must ensure our curriculum is serving the needs of our students; that we aren’t pitting them against one another through arbitrary national standards; and that our schooling system recognises that every child is different.

Over recent months, instead of focusing on filling the cracks in education, the Government has instead widened them.

By now most New Zealanders will have seen (or not seen depending on if they arrived or not) school lunches with melted plastic, pork served to Muslim students, frozen and burned food, and a meal so hot it exploded, burning a child.

Schools nationwide have been in a fit trying to clean up the Government’s mess. While Christopher Luxon chooses to shame parents and David Seymour and Erica Stanford squabble, children are going hungry.

I’m hearing from countless principals that this farce has taken valuable time away from their classrooms, that they’re frustrated with the poor quality of food, disheartened that kids are going home hungry, and want to return to locally made healthy lunches because they simply want the best for their kids.

In some cases, it’s also costing them their own money. This begs the question: how much is this mess costing us?

Instead of going on a national blame tour, David Seymour and Erica Stanford must both take responsibility and front up to the schools who just want to get back to teaching their students.

We have to get things right for our students. Claiming you’re saving money only to give it to tobacco companies at the risk of our children’s future, isn’t the trade-off most New Zealanders would agree to.

As one principal had put it – at the end of the day, these are still just children. As Labour’s spokeswoman for children and newly appointed spokeswoman for education, our children are always my priority.