Tolley firm on standards

Education Minister Anne Tolley is ruling out a law change to prevent standards information being used to create "league tables" comparing schools.

A survey shows 95 per cent of Principal Federation members are either opposed to new national standards or have serious concerns that they will be used to create the tables.

Principals have threatened to withhold standard assessment results because they are concerned that schools will be unfairly compared with each other.

From next year, the progress of primary school children in maths, reading and writing will be assessed against Government-set standards.

Principals' Federation president Ernie Buutveld said students, teachers, boards and schools would be affected if a fundamental, but wrong, change was made to the education system.

"If following consultation data remains the issue and could be used potentially to publicly exercise a culture of blame and shame for schools we would be worried for our children."

Last week Labour education spokesman Trevor Mallard suggested a change could be made to the Education Amendment Bill now before a select committee, or a separate bill could be drafted, to ensure that the Education Ministry and officials could see the comparative data but that it was not made public.

Mr Buutveld also asked the minister if she would consider the option.

When asked last week, Mrs Tolley would not say whether she would support such a change.

"I welcome views from parents and educators on how best to do this - including on how we could shape those reports so they don't lead to league tables," she had said earlier.

"I'm open to suggestions from the sector on how this information should be collected and reported."

But at the federation's conference yesterday, she took a firmer line.

"You should be clear that the Government will not resile from national standards. Parents want them, they have a right to them."

- NZPA