School leavers 'aren't prepared'

A National Party government would implement a nationwide standard on literacy and numeracy for high school leavers, education spokesman Bill English told a public meeting in Kerikeri this week.

Mr English said it was vital for the future of the country that all school leavers were competent in reading, writing and basic maths.

He told the meeting that 30 per cent of school leavers aged 16 had failed basic NCEA standards - equating to 15,000 students a year, which he called a damning statistic.

"It's worse with boys where the rate is around 33 or 34 per cent, while for girls it is around 25 to 26 per cent."

Mr English said the current assessment system did not equip parents to understand or become involved in their children's education, and did not offer a trade skill alternative to academic pursuits.

"We need to have a national standard and some sort of accountability when it comes to preparing 16-year-olds for pre-course qualification for further training or studying," he said.

"It's also about getting the right information to parents so that they understand that educational process for their children, and so that those who do not understand education simply don't treat it like some kind of mysterious black box which means nothing to them."

Rather than send children home with "teacher-speak" in report cards, Mr English said the internet could be put to use within three years to give parents detailed information on their children's performance.

He said it was important that school leavers were prepared for the future because New Zealand's small and ageing population could ill afford to lose 15,000 young people a year to apathy or failure.

"We have trade and skills shortages across the board.

"When you consider that, as well as high competition across the world for skilled labour, we cannot keep letting young people fail because they aren't adequately prepared in the basics."

He added that violent crime generally came from failed school leavers who had not been properly prepared for post-school life.

"However, a great number of them surprisingly go on and succeed despite being handicapped in this way."

Mr English said a National government would push for a nationwide recognised standard of achievement for school leavers

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)