Dalefield dumps 'elitist' regime

Dalefield School has turned its back on National Standards, describing it as an elitist and unworkable regime that will brand most pupils as failures.

The National-led Government enacted National Standards legislation in primary and intermediate schools within its first 100 days in power.

Children aged five-to-12 are ranked under the standards at above, below or well below benchmarks in reading, writing and mathematics.

Dalefield School principal Kevin Jephson said the standards would reward only those pupils "who arrive at school from extremely advantaged backgrounds such as inherited intelligence, emotional security, financial prospects and pro-active parenting".

"The many children who come to school less advantaged not only demonstrate their lack of readiness to learn at higher academic levels but also inflict on the school their many and varied social problems."

National Standards had allowed politicians and bureaucrats to "get in by the back door" and influence policy and practice in schools, which under parent control were "more relaxed and human", he said.

Now boards of trustees face the axe for not implementing National Standards and teachers are hamstrung and demotivated by "countless restrictive practices".

"With the tyranny of officialdom flooding our schools they will soon descend into mediocrity and then over time become ripe for closure and mergers."

Mr Jephson said his school underwent two years of consultation and trialling of the standards and an ensuing trustee survey of parents at the end of last year showed only six per cent support for the scheme.

"Consequently, they (trustees) ruled that National Standards would not be included in our annual charter," he said.

"It is obvious to most school practitioners - 90 per cent of principals have grave concerns about their design - that national standards has been designed in isolation from the sector."

He said in practise the system was shown to be elitist and unworkable and set a level of performance which only the most gifted pupils could achieve.

Dalefield School board of trustees chairman Ewan Hyde said the board had decided after lengthy community consultation that the standards would "prove detrimental to the learning of its children".

He said Dalefield School - in line with about 200 other New Zealand schools - would from next year ignore ministry directives on national standards.

"We at Dalefield cannot afford to wait any longer for the minister to wake up and rescind an unworkable, treacherous and anti-child educational law.

"It is time for the lawmakers to stand up and apologise to our citizens for wasting precious taxpayer funds and degrading high performing schools on a political whim."