Labour promises to drop National Standards

Labour has made an election promise to drop the controversial National Standards in all primary schools. Photo / Christine Cornege

Labour is promising to drop the controversial National Standards in all primary schools if it is elected this year.

Education spokeswoman Sue Moroney has just announced a five-step plan to lift children's achievement in primary schools.

Ms Moroney said that plan will give every child the opportunity to achieve to their full potential and they will be supported by a strong partnership between parents, school, neighbours and the wider community.

Under the plan schools will no longer be required to implement National Standards, although schools that want to continue using them will have that option.

Labour says it will instead lift achievement by "setting high expectations for each student according to their individual ability and providing parents with information they want in plain language about their child's learning''.

"We know that children learn at different rates and in different ways. The one size fits all approach to education fails children,'' said Ms Moroney.

Primary schools will instead be required to use recognised assessment tools and teacher judgement to:

1. Determine the NZ Curriculum level a child is achieving.

2. Show a child's rate of progress between reports over the course of a year.

3. Identify children not achieving within the curriculum level appropriate to their year at school.

4. Decide and report the next learning steps.

5. Report this information in plain language to parents at least twice a year.

Ms Moroney said resources spent forcing National Standards on schools will be re-directed to assist students who are under-achieving and to create the conditions where all teachers can excel.

The rest of Labour's education policy will be released at a later date.