Govt bullying schools into standards - NZEI

While Education Minister Anne Tolley says most schools were getting on with implementing the standards, the NZ Educational Institute says schools are being bullyed into accepting them. Photo / Christine Cornege

The Government is employing a previously unused legal provision to bully schools into using national standards, an education union says.

Education Minister Anne Tolley said most schools were getting on with implementing the standards, but teacher unions opposed the standards and some schools were refusing to implement them.

The New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) today said a previously-unused provision of the Education Act was being used to force schools to comply with the standards.

Many schools had received a letter from the Ministry of Education demanding that they lodge charters containing achievement targets based on national standards by July 1.

Schools had previously been able to submit charters any time before the end of the school year, the union said.

NZEI president Ian Leckie said schools should not be bullied into using an unsound educational policy they had no confidence in.

"It is disappointing to see the government's obsession with National Standards undermining good strategic practice and planning by schools, healthy relationships with the Ministry of Education and what actually works to boost student achievement," he said.

- NZPA