Fight against NS moves to new battleground

The fight over National Standards will continue, opponents of the system say, after all schools need to include the standards in their charters.

Most schools included national standards targets in their charters sent to the MoE at the start of the month, but over 300 so-called “rebel schools” excluded them.

Perry Rush, spokesman of the Boards Taking Action Coalition, advised members to adopt a “forced compliance” for now.

He said to submit a compliant charter “along with a disclaimer that makes it clear the Ministry’s targets are imposed”.

Continued non-compliance could end with statutory intervention, he said.

“This outcome would be detrimental to the significant and growing community of concern about national standards.”

He believes the real battle with national standards will come next year when schools are required to provide data to the MoE.

Ian Leckie, president of the NZ Educational Institute (NZEI), said schools being ordered to put a statement in their charter does not mean they will be implementing national standards.

“There can be no victory for the government in forcing schools and communities to do something which they are ethically opposed to, and which they believe has the potential to harm children and New Zealand’s great education system,” he said.

In a written statement Tolley said the majority of schools were “getting on with the important task of implementing national standards, and giving parents clear information about the progress their child is making”.

“This political protest was always greatly exaggerated by those involved. The latest figures show that 85 per cent of schools whose charters have been analysed have targets against the standards.

“Many in the remaining 15 per cent weren’t protesting, but simply need better support in putting their charters together,” she said.