Labour leader Chris Hipkins has clearly heeded these calls from the electorate.
He has previously spoken of the importance of bipartisan projects.
“As Minister of Education, I went to great lengths to make sure that the then-Opposition were extensively involved in the review of NCEA.
“I think the current Government should do the same,” Hipkins told the Herald last month.
Well, apparently Labour’s education spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime didn’t get Hipkins’ memo. Or maybe she just ignored it.
Yesterday, the Herald revealed that Education Minister Erica Stanford had offered Labour, and Prime directly, multiple opportunities to be briefed on the NCEA change process.
But Prime at first didn’t respond to these invitations. Then when she did, months later, she totally declined the offer.
Only after the Herald began to report, almost daily last month, about impending changes coming to NCEA did Prime decide it might actually be a good idea to engage with Stanford.
When asked why she didn’t initially take up Stanford’s offers, Prime told the Herald she chose to meet teachers, parents and others before the minister.
“When we do meet, I’ll be making sure the views of people I’ve been meeting with are central to the conversation we have,” she said.
Parents and teachers would be rightly annoyed at this approach to such an important issue.
Hipkins may also feel aggrieved at the lack of engagement from his MP.
Our children and their education cannot be used as a political football.
Prime’s idleness and frankly, lack of courtesy has meant we all lose out here.
We want Labour as one of the two major parties to contribute to the conversation, to offer constructive criticism to changes of this magnitude.
The education portfolio is a big responsibility. Did Prime not think a complete overhaul of our secondary education qualification was worthy of her time and attention?
One of the emails from Stanford’s office spoke of productive engagements with Prime’s predecessor Jan Tinetti on curriculum reform.
It would then appear that this bipartisan politics is possible.
After an apparent ghosting by Prime, Stanford decided to go directly to Hipkins.
“I’ve sought on multiple occasions to get input from your education spokesperson on NCEA curriculum reform, with no response,” Stanford wrote to the Labour leader on July 1.
“It is important to have cross-party collaboration regarding a national qualification, and the offer remains open to arrange a briefing from officials or from the Professional Advisory Group.”
The next day, possibly after a few questions from Hipkins to his MP, an adviser for Prime replied to Stanford.
“I acknowledge your email regarding NCEA curriculum reform,” it read.
“Willow-Jean has considered your email and declines the invitation.”
Earlier this week, Hipkins said the Government was “heading in broadly the right direction” with its qualification reforms.
Prime, meanwhile, questioned the amount of time being provided to the education sector for consultation.
Hipkins is absolutely correct when he says he doesn’t want issues around qualification reform to become “unnecessarily political”.
However, he may need to remind his team of that.
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