HOME   >   THEMES   >   BUILDING NATIONAL IDENTITY   >   SPEECHES

PPTA Conference, Brentwood Hotel, Kilbirnie, Wellington

==

Many thanks for the invitation to address your annual conference.

I come today as Prime Minister and proud of what has been achieved in secondary education over the past nine years.

We have a world class education system in New Zealand, and PPTA and its members can take considerable pride in delivering that to students.

We all know that given the resources even more can be done.

But the last thing we need is a downward spiral into the failed ideas of the 1990s when the PPTA and the NZEI fought brave battles against policies which were motivated by right wing ideology and not by educational best practice.

I suspect that Labour was elected in 1999 just in time to stop the introduction of compulsory bulk funding, vouchers, and performance pay.

But none of those ideas have gone away. They lie dormant, waiting for another opportunity to be trotted out, as they surely would be under a National-Act government.

Such ideas have had no currency during my nine years as Prime Minister - and I can assure you that none of them will fly in a fourth term either.

I have raised the issue of trust as the key issue in this election campaign.

Nowhere is that more relevant than in education.

Who do you trust with the future of our education system - Labour, which over nine years has employed over 6,000 more teachers, lifted investment in education by 84 per cent, and negotiates significant salary improvements, or National, which prioritises tax cuts over public services, promises more funding for private schools, and plans to weaken industrial relations to tilt the playing field against unions ?

Of course, from time to time, our government and PPTA have had our differences - and around pay negotiations things can get tense.

But Labour recognises the PPTA as a powerful force for good in the education system as an advocate for teachers, students, and quality education.

As a government we seek to develop policy which is based on educational best practice.

Our vision is for education to play a transformational role in developing the full potential of each student and in enabling them to contribute to our nation.

Education has intrinsic value. It empowers each of us as individuals and enables us to participate more fully in society and in the economy. Education enriches each of us in every sense. Investment in education is one of the most important investments any society can make in its future.

We have made big investments in school infrastructure - in new schools, in new classrooms and facilities in existing schools, and in new technologies.

The five year school property budgets we introduced have helped schools plan their infrastructure spending much more effectively.

But our most important investments have been in the people who drive the education system for our students - you, the teachers.

Well trained and properly paid teachers are the linchpin of a great education system. We have to be able to recruit into and retain our best and brightest in teaching.  That's tough in an era of low unemployment and great demand for educated and skilled people, not only in New Zealand but also world-wide.

So there has been significant salary movement on our watch to endeavour to address these factors.

The average remuneration (salary and allowances) of secondary school teachers has increased from $49,218 in March 2000 to $69,442 in July 2008, or 41.1% over the period.

The last round of teacher and principal settlements occurred in late 2007 and early 2008.

The settlements deliver a cumulative increase of 12.5 percent to base salary rates.  Further, a union member benefit of a lump sum payment of $750 for teachers and $1000 for principals was agreed to in recognition of the ongoing commitment of union members to three-year collective agreements.

As well as pay increases, the settlements provide additional Middle and Senior Management Allowances to assist schools recognise those teachers who have management responsibilities. And to assist with professional development 100 Study Support Grants of four hours time per week and up to $500 for study fee reimbursement were introduced.

Another important move has been further recognition of the role of the Specialist Classroom Teacher, with an increase to the financial allowance of $8000 per year from July 2009, and an ability to have fees reimbursed up to $1000 per year for each of two years for study towards post-graduate qualifications from the start of 2008.

Staffing, both teaching and non-teaching, is by far the largest resource delivered to schools. Together, the PPTA, school trustees, principals, and the Ministry of Education will need to explore what new resource may be required in the Schools Plus environment.

To this end the Ministry of Education and the PPTA have agreed on the terms of reference for a staffing review, which will include consideration of issues such as: 

• the range of skills required.
• teaching and non-teaching staffing requirements.
• appropriate administrative support.
• development of stronger links with other support agencies (such as health), and
• the resourcing required to provide an effective schooling workforce.

Let me now say a little about Schools Plus, which I regard as one of the most important of all the policies our Labour-led Government seeks to advance in the next three years.

As we all know, by international standards New Zealand secondary school students, on average, achieve at very high levels.

Out of the thirty OECD countries who take part in the Programme for International Student Assessment,

• only one achieved a significantly better mean scientific literacy score than New Zealand
• only two achieved a significantly better mean reading literacy score, and
• only three achieved a significantly better mean mathematical literacy score.

These are outstanding results, which we can all take pride in.

But what the averages tend to disguise is a rather long tail of underachievement.

It is that long tail that Schools Plus is fairly and squarely aimed at ;

• at the 25 per cent of students who have left school before they turn seventeen (and for Maori students that figure rises to over 42 per cent), and
• at the 34 per cent of students who leave without achieving NCEA Level Two, which is such an important qualification for gaining entry to further education, including to many trade and technical training courses.
• At the 30,000 fifteen to seventeen year olds who are not in education, and especially the 10,000 of them who are not in employment or training either.

There's no doubt that achievement levels among our teenagers have been rising.  For example :

• the proportion achieving at NCEA Level Two is 25 per cent higher than four years ago,
• the proportion achieving university entrance standard is up 45 per cent in the last five years, and
• the numbers leaving with little or no formal attainment at all is down 71 per cent in the last six years - to five per cent of leavers.

So the time is right to press ahead with ambitious policy to lift participation and achievement even further, building on the many examples of best practice which already exist in our secondary schools and on the flexibility built into our curriculum and our qualifications system.

As you know, our intention is to legislate for an education or training leaving age of seventeen to take effect in 2011 and of eighteen in 2014.

The transformation we are looking for will take time, a lot of resources, and must be phased.

Two weeks ago I announced initial resourcing of around $40 million to get the change process started.

But that's just the beginning.  We will need to fund :

• the teaching and operational costs for the extra young people who stay in school and who participate in education and training beyond school,
• the school buildings and equipment needed,
• the process and systems changes needed to enable schools to respond,
• professional development for teachers,
• increased support for and development of careers advice, and
• support for the additional health and social services required.

In January, we estimated that at full implementation the annual cost of keeping students engaged for longer would run at around $170 million per annum, and that still looks like a reasonable estimate.   As well there may be extra costs associated with the system and process changes.

We are seeing schools as very much at the centre of and driving the development and delivery of Schools Plus.

We have confidence in the ability of New Zealand secondary schools, properly resourced, to be the central point for flexible education and learning, and the place from which students can reach out to tertiary learning and workplace training with the emphasis on what is appropriate for each student.

We think  the National Party's so called "Youth Guarantee" undermines the role of our schools by providing incentives to leave school and move to other providers of education.

Labour's view is that our schools are best equipped to provide the mentoring, nurturing, guidance, and peer support for sixteen and seventeen year olds, and that through flexible pathways, and in partnerships with employers and other educators and trainers, our schools can help guide young people towards the best outcomes.

Moving forward, from 2011 we will be expecting all students from Year 9 to have their own education plan developed and agreed between them, their school, and their family.  Such plans are already working well in leading schools.

But there are also many other innovative programmes in our schools which can form part of the Schools Plus menu for all schools to choose and develop from.  We have allocated a budget to identify those initiatives so that they can be widely adopted.

By 2010, all schools will be using the new New Zealand Curriculum, designed to support school students develop the values and competencies and gain the knowledge they need to function well in the 21st century.

Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, the curriculum for Maori medium education, has also recently been released, for implementation in 2011.

When the new New Zealand Curriculum was released, we announced a teacher only day for all schools so that quality time could be devoted to it.

Teachers have indicated that more professional development time would be appreciated.  The Minister of Education has asked me to announce that he has agreed to an extra two teacher only days for secondary schools, so that you can tackle the complex task of building on the new curriculum, aligning NCEA standards with it, and moving towards the implementation of Schools Plus.

The alignment of the NCEA standards with the new Curriculum is to be phased in over three years from 2010, beginning with Level One.

As you know, while the school leaving age is to stay at sixteen, we have begun the process of removing the early leaving exemption for under-sixteens.

That is because we don't believe they are the best solution for the under-sixteens seeking work experience, or who are having difficulty in a classroom environment.

We believe that an enhanced school environment of the kind we propose through Schools Plus, with more course options, including the introduction of the Youth Apprenticeships and more personalised programmes of education, provides better ways forward for those students.

A related area you are discussing at this conference is disruptive anti-social behaviour in the classroom.

I acknowledge that disruptive behaviour takes a serious toll emotionally and in educational terms on students, their peers, teachers, schools, parents, and families.

I understand that the behaviours of disruptive students can be managed through a focus on early intervention and prevention, clear school-wide plans, and the involvement of parents and skilled staff.

Schools Plus emphasises exactly this kind of personalised approach to learning.  Together with other resources available through the Ministry of Education, I hope we can give greater assistance to schools to deal with these students.

In conclusion, I want to emphasise that I personally and the Labour Party are very committed to investing in quality public education, as we are in public services over all.

That's why we are not entering a tax cuts auction.  We are implementing a tax cut package from today at a level which also enables us to keep up investment in areas like health and education.

Far bigger tax cuts and maintaining and improving spending on education and other critical areas just doesn't add up.

And driving up New Zealand's debt levels by borrowing for tax cuts is reckless - especially in the middle of the worst international financial crisis since the 1930s.

It's your choice who you trust with the future of education - and with the future of New Zealand in these challenging times.

Given the privilege of a fourth term in government, we in Labour look forward to continuing to work with the PPTA to build the best possible education system we can for the 21st century.

 

• OUR MPs | 
• FEATURES | 
• LATEST NEWS | 
• SPEECHES | 
• PORTFOLIOS | 
• POLICY | 
• MULTIMEDIA | 
• SEARCH | 
• CONTACT US