National pledges to give parents control of education

Don Brash criticised the power of bureaucrats. Picture / Fotopress

The National Party will wrest control of schools back from bureaucracy and empower parents if it leads the next government, leader Don Brash said today.

Unveiling the party's education policy in a speech at Westlake Girls High School in Auckland, he said parents knew best about their children's education.

Mr Brash attacked the numbers of bureaucrats he said had been recruited under the present Labour-led government.

Form-filling and other bureaucracy was criticised in Mr Brash's speech.

Mr Brash said: "Who is in the best position to know what school your children should attend? Who should determine what values should be imparted to them? Who cares for them the most? You or the government? I believe parents know best."

In the past five years, more than 1200 additional education bureaucrats had been hired, he said.

"The average New Zealand secondary school spends 35 days a year filling out 150 different forms, something even the bureaucrats in Wellington admit is a high burden of compliance," Mr Brash added.

He said National would slash education bureaucracy and use the money saved to increase school funding. This would allow principals and school boards to make decisions about how best to use funding, rather than bureaucrats.

The controversial NCEA exam system also came under attack, with Mr Brash saying pupils had become the "guinea pigs" of a bad experiment.

National would urgently overhaul the NCEA and dump scholarship in favour of a "highstakes" external exam similar to the previous Bursary exam.

"Failure must be reported," he said. "If we don't report failed standards, then we can't begin to work out why failure occurred and how it can be fixed."

There was a conspiracy to ensure parents could not compare schools or students, he said. "Parents want to know how their child is doing and how the school is performing. They have a right to know."

National's education policy:

* Fundamentally overhaul the NCEA and reintroduce demanding scholarship exams where student gained "meaningful" grades.

* End the "conspiracy" to hide information about school and pupil performance.

* Cut back assessment to allow more time for teaching and learning.

* Introduce national literacy and numeracy standards, as well as accountability mechanisms.

* Provide reading and maths vouchers to give to parents to enable children to catch up.

* Reduce the education bureaucracy and decentralise school management -- savings will go towards school funding.

* Free-up outstanding state schools for expansion.

* Support the expansion of integrated schools where there is demand.

* End rigid zoning restrictions and lift state contribution to independent schools.

- NZPA