Tolley relieved of portfolio to focus on national standards

Anne Tolley. Photo / Supplied

Education Minister Anne Tolley has been relieved of her tertiary education portfolio to concentrate on implementing the Government's controversial flagship policy of setting national standards of literacy and numeracy.

Steven Joyce will become Minister of Tertiary Education.

Prime Minister John Key has also decided to take Conservation from Trade Minister Tim Groser because he is out of the country so much and give it to Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson.

And he has made Mr Groser the full Minister for Climate Change International Negotiations rather than the associate minister, a title which led to some confusion among his counterparts overseas.

Mr Key said the change did not imply Mrs Tolley was not performing in her portfolio but it gave her the best chance to implement national standards policy and the youth guarantee policy covering the transition from school to training.

"National standards is of critical importance to the Government. It's our number one objective in the compulsory education sector to see that successfully rolled out in 2010 and by relieving Anne Tolley of her tertiary responsibilities I am giving her the maximum opportunity to concentrate on the successful implementation of both national standards and youth guarantee."

Mr Key called national standards "one of the core fundamental planks for delivering an egalitarian society where all New Zealanders have an opportunity to succeed".

"If you can't read and write then you can't participate in a modern economy."

For the one in five who were not succeeding at school he believed that national standards would make a difference. It would accelerate the performance of other New Zealanders and ensure parents were part of the process and understood the progression of their child.

Mr Key said the Government was not considering starting the policy with a trial - as called for by the Auckland Primary Principals' Association in December last year.

Some principals were surprised by the "hoo-haa" because they already had standards, some fully endorsed it, and some principals were very hesitant.

"But it is the Government's view that this is the right step," said Mr Key, "and we intend to take this debate to the parents of New Zealand, we want to engage fully with the education sector, we want to work alongside principals and teachers but we are not going to back away from successful implementation ... of national standards."