Teachers' union takes concerns on road

The country's largest teachers' union has kicked off its nationwide road trip calling for national standards to be trialled or dropped altogether.

On Tuesday, the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) took two buses from Kaitaia and Bluff on a travelling roadshow visiting schools and local communities before a meeting in Wellington at the end of March.

Communications director Stephanie Mills said the NZEI wanted to see the standards trialled before they were introduced to all schools. She said many people still did not understand what the attainment standards for reading, writing and maths were all about.

There was a level of trust between the community and schools and the goal of the tour was to make sure communities understood schools' concerns.

"Primary schools are really plugged into the local community - the school is the centre of the community."

Yesterday morning the team spoke to parents as they dropped their children off at Kawakawa Primary.

The NZEI then held a lunchtime meeting with teachers at the school and an after-school meeting with the community, teachers and principals from neighbouring schools, and board of trustees members.

Brendan Morrisey, principal of Kaitaia Primary, decided to host the NZEI tour as the Ministry of Education gave its own presentation at the school last year. "Every story has two sides."

He said parents had a lot of questions, mainly about what the standards would mean for their children.

Today the bus will visit Kaikohe East Primary before heading to Paihia Primary in the afternoon.

Chicky Rudkin, principal of Kaikohe East Primary, which will not be implementing the standards, said the tour was a great opportunity for parents and the community to find out about the good and bad of national standards.

The bus will travel throughout Northland until the 12th, and then spend two weeks visiting schools in Auckland.