Education

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• Continue awarding Aspire scholarships to underprivileged children.
• Increase the autonomy that local principals and staff have in running their school.  Boards and principals should be able, for example, to set teacher remuneration at their discretion like any other employer, rather than having a rigid, seniority based pay scale.
• Further increase the subsidy for independent schools so that parents who choose independent schools for their children do not lose so much of their child’s share of education funding.
• Encourage choice in assessment systems, whether they be NCEA, Cambridge International Examination, International Baccalaureate, or other qualifications. (more here)

• Establish a Commission of Inquiry into the New Zealand education system.
• Increase the Operations Grant by 10%.
• Maximum class sizes no greater than 20, and increased teacher-child ratios in early childhood services.
• Stop the sale of fizzy drinks, sugary drinks, lollies, and chippies on school property.
• Incorporate environmental education into the core curriculum at all levels.
• More funding for Maori language, immersion and bilingual programmes.
• Continue to oppose the bulk funding of teacher and support staff salaries.
• Enforce the law that prohibits schools from demanding fees.
• Evaluate the NCEA, in consultation with all stakeholders, and implement the PPTA recommendations from the Teachers Talk about the NCEA Report March 2005.
• Support pay parity for early childhood, primary and secondary educators.
• Improve resources community-based 'not for profit' early childhood services, including playcentre, kohanga reo, Pacific Island language nests.
• Ensure the Special Education Grant is adequate for the actual number of special needs children in each school.
• Meaningful, achievable Individual Education Plans for all children with special learning needs.
• Effective ESOL programmes for all migrant children in state schools.
• Establish an independent tribunal to review the powers of principals and Boards of Trustees in regards to enrolments, suspensions and stand-downs. (more here)

• Under Labour, schools will not be required to implement National's standards.
• Labour will restore over the course of two terms the $95 million p/a subsidy funding cut, and we will work with the sector to reinstate the policy of 100% qualified staff in all teacher-led services.
• Labour will provide free high-quality Early Childhood Education and parent support from 18 months to 3 years for the most vulnerable 5% of children.
• Labour will support increased participation in sport and recreation activities, including through an investigation into school sport participation, including the feasibility of reintroducing mid-week early finishing nationwide to facilitate mid-week sport.
• Labour will invest $75 million over four years in „e-learning‟ for low-decile schools, with priority going to schools with year 7 -13 students and the capability to deliver an effective programme . This includes Government funding for students to have individual use of a mobile device. (more here)

• Education is at the heart of social and economic progress for individuals and communities. It should foster critical thinking on all aspects of life, not just to ensure life opportunities and economic progress, but also to enable imaginative thinking about how to address human problems. Mana wants less of simply a “knowledge” society and more of a “critical and creative thinking” society. Mana believes a high quality public education system from early childhood to tertiary is essential for the best life opportunities for children, whanau, communities and the country. Uncompromising high quality must be delivered at every level and the government’s role is to provide the necessary resources. (more here)

• Ensure early childhood education as the foundation to our future is affordable, available and responsive and includes initiatives such as PAFT, HIPPY, PAUSE, PAUA, kōhanga reo and whānau led centres.
• Implement financial literacy as a core component of the New Zealand curriculum from year 7 and 8.
• We place a high priority on the rollout of literacy and numeracy strategies for deciles 1-3 schools; and require that all children within the education system can read, write and count to their age.
• Guaranteed mana whenua representation on the boards of all state schools. (more here)

• Invest $1 billion extra on schools to become fit for the 21st Century.
• We will build new schools and modernise our older schools so that they are modern learning environments.
• Existing money for school building projects will be needed simply to maintain the existing school network and to help address health and safety issues such as earthquake proofing and leaky buildings.
• The extra $1 billion will allow us to carry out a programme over the next five years.
• Establish the Network for Learning (N4L). (more here)
• Publish annual plans, provisional targets, and achievements by 28 February each year.The data from National Standards will show areas where schools need more support, possibly in literacy or numeracy, or work with Maori or Pasifika students. (more here)
• Set a target of 98 per cent of new entrants in school having participated in early childhood education, to be met by 2015.
• Work to develop a funding model that is flexible and reduces bureaucracy, while retaining the universal 20 hours early 

  childhood education programme. (more here)

• We propose a zero-fees policy for tertiary education in New Zealand in place of Student Allowances, accompanied by a push to increase the quality of tertiary education and protect the value of New Zealand degrees. (more here)
• Set a minimum number of hours for the teaching of literacy and numeracy. (more here)
• Look at initiatives to address the problem of boys continuing to fall behind girls in achievement and completion rates for NCEA (more here)