Teachers mark down National's test plans

A plan for nationwide reading and maths standards for primary children - and vouchers for those failing them - met almost universal condemnation last night.

The proposals in National's vision for "excellence in education" were the most contentious aspects of the policy, unveiled yesterday by party leader Don Brash.

While education spokesman Bill English later insisted the tests would be a modification of what exists and not a "pass/fail high stakes exam", some were sceptical.

Principals' Federation president Pat Newman said the plans proved National had "little understanding about what is happening in our schools".

Six-year-olds were already tested and, if they were having problems, programmes were available to help them.

"I'm frankly amazed that the Leader of the Opposition is not aware of this."

Mr Newman said the internationally renowned Reading Recovery programme could cater for all struggling students if it were better resourced.

"The problem is not identifying the struggling kids, it's the money to do something about it.

"It would make more sense for the voucher money to go to schools so we can get more kids on recovery programmes."

Bay View Primary School principal Tim Jenkinson, who attended the policy launch at Westlake Girls High School in Auckland, agreed, saying that remedial tuition at schools would be of high quality, while private lessons might not be.

Mr Newman said the Principals' Federation, which represents about 2300 primary and intermediate principals, had previously rejected national testing.

He pointed to Britain, where national testing was dropped amid horror stories of stress among young children.

The Parent Teacher Association's president, Diane O'Sullivan, said that many parents would be wary of national testing as it led to comparisons and league tables.

She dismissed the voucher system as "old ideas in a different format".

One Auckland principal said the vouchers scheme showed "considerable ignorance" of the reasons children had difficulty learning to read.

Noeline Goldie, principal at Fruitvale School in west Auckland, said transience and learning English as a second language were the main reasons students at her school were struggling.

"How will giving vouchers for attendance at after-school reading clinics alleviate either problem?"

Ms Goldie said schools were continually fighting for more money to pay for vital resources.

"Is there any political party out there which actually bothers to ask of schools 'what works'?" she said.

Julien Le Sueur, president of the Auckland Primary Principals' Association, said national testing had proven to have very poor results everywhere it had been tried in the world.

Vouchers were an "interesting concept" with the potential to launch a new private sector growth area, he said.

"I would wonder how effective it would be to have children working to capacity until 3pm, then taken for more lessons elsewhere," Mr Le Sueur said.

Integrated-school principals at the launch welcomed National's promise to give their sector more money.

"We suffer as a result of the Government policy on roll caps," said Francine Bennett, the principal of Kingsway School, an integrated school in Orewa.

"We have a huge waiting list of people who cannot come to our school because we have a roll cap."

Other aspects of the policy met a mixed reaction.

Unions the New Zealand Educational Institute and the Post Primary Teachers' Association criticised attempts to "privatise" the education system.

The jury was still out on scrapping controversial zoning rules, while pockets of the anti-NCEA camp were applauding an overhaul of the exam system.

However, plans to return to bulk-funding are more likely to prove popular.

John Morris, headmaster at Auckland Grammar, said an overhaul of NCEA was a vital move because the Government was continuing to ignore calls to take exam variability seriously.

Mr Morris said he liked the emphasis on choice throughout the policy "which is really what parents want".

But that choice will lead to social divisions, according to the Post-Primary Teachers' Association president Debbie Te Whaiti.

Don Brash was dismantling state education and wanted to identify and divide failing students.

"This will be met with disbelief by teachers and exacerbate the diminished faith they have in the system," she said.

- additional reporting Martin Johnston