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EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION
"The quality of the future we leave to our children is determined by the quality of the children we
leave for our future."
New Zealand First believes that education is a critical social and economic investment. We will continue to deliver policies that develop an education system fit for the 21st century and that enables each and every New Zealander to achieve his or her greatest potential.
The foundation of education lies in the family. New Zealand First will focus on programmes that assist families to provide the best environment of care and educational development. The framework for early childhood education established under the "Before Five" policy, will be maintained and early childhood education will be advanced within this framework.
Within the compulsory sector, New Zealand First believes a less adversarial industrial relations framework is essential for a healthy schooling system.
At the tertiary level, New Zealand First believes that there is a degree of private good which should be funded by students. However, the existing regime is too harsh, particularly on middle income families.
Priorities for New Zealand First will be to:
- implement policies which will increase participation rates and quality provision of early childhood education;
- develop a comprehensive package of parent support and guidance programmes;
- increase the amount of discretionary funding available to decile 3-10 schools by flattening the distribution curve;
- undertake a review of teachers' workload and minimise bureaucratic requirements;
- strengthen and improve education provisions in all sectors for rural areas;
- implement a human resource planning component to policy development;
- develop a new, non-adversarial system for establishing pay and conditions of teachers;
- introduce a universal student allowance; and,
- increase the proportion of the tertiary tuition subsidy to at least that of the 1998 budget.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
The importance of the early years of development is recognised by New Zealand First. In particular, New Zealand First affirms the importance of the family for the optimum development of children and will develop and fund programmes which will provide all families with support and guidance in this role
Moreover, for formal early childhood education, New Zealand First will continue to pursue the joint goals of increased participation rates and enhanced quality provision, in particular, for those groups which have least access to high quality programmes.
PLANS
A New Zealand First led Government will:
- initiate Family Start Programmes across the country aimed at those children at greatest risk of less than optimal development;
- make available "Home Instructional Programme for Pre-schoolers and Youngsters" (HIPPY) programmes to all families with low levels of educational capital;
- develop Parents as First Teacher (PAFT) programmes across the country;
- extend the 0800 advice line services;
- combine all parent-caregiver support programmes under the umbrella of a single agency;
- increase the discretionary grants available to communities for building or upgrading early childhood facilities in order to increase participation rates;
- explore the possibilities of enabling early childhood centres to be funded more than six hours per day and for weekend sessions; and,
- develop a set of principles defining which languages will be supported and to what degree.
COMPULSORY SCHOOLING
New Zealand First remains committed to the concept of "Tomorrow's Schools" and will pursue policies and programmes to enable it to fully function, so that all children will leave school with the skills to undertake higher education and/or vocational training.
New Zealand First recognises the importance of Boards of Trustees, principals, teachers, and other staff members, parents and community members in the schooling process and will continue to provide policy which will support them in their endeavours.
PLANS
New Zealand First will:
- review the Ongoing Reviewable Resource (ORRS) scheme funding with a view of ensuring more funding is made available to directly meet the needs of the child as documented through the Individual Education Programme (IEP) process;
- review the student/teacher ratio for Blind and Vision Impaired students from the current 1 specialist teacher to 35 students (1:35) with a view of bringing the ratio down to 1:15;
- ensure adequate resources are available to Blind and Vision Impaired students in a timely fashion, as is available to sighted students;
- reformulate the decile funding component to lift the amounts available to those in decile 3-10 schools;
- instigate a new system for the establishment of teachers' pay and conditions which will ensure New Zealand maintains the best quality teaching force in the world and children do not lose educational time through teacher strikes;
- increase the pool of funds available for Isolation Funding to reflect additional costs facing all rural schools;
- promote a programme of 'values' education in schools;
- not pursue a system of bulk-funding of teacher salaries unless there is an acceptance by the teaching force of its merits;
- create a co-ordinated system of school support building on the Learning Support Centres;
- universalise sabbatical provisions for teachers;
- increase resources and funding to revitalise and run the National Anti Bullying Campaign in schools;
- not tolerate failing schools and introduce a Ministry school provision in those cases where the "Tomorrow's Schools" model is not working;
- conduct an immediate inquiry into, and maintain an ongoing review of, the National Certificate of Education Achievement (NCEA) assessment systems, and in particular New Zealand Qualifications Authority's (NZQA's) setting of standards and management of the assessment process;
- consider the practical implications of removing unit standards from NCEA;
- establish a taskforce to identify the particular factors relating to the underachievement of boys and make recommendations to the government;
- reduce class sizes for lower decile schools in the first three years of schooling;
- develop para-professional workers within the school system;
- place limits on the number of foreign fee paying students a school can enrol, based on their circumstances;
- restore New Zealand's international reputation by implementing clearer guidelines and stricter regulations for institutions providing education to overseas students;
- reconstitute the Correspondence School to enhance its ability to deliver learner-centred, digitally-minded education to meet the very different needs of full-time, dual-enrolled, adult, and international students by using the latest technology, and by allowing 'teaching' to take place from throughout the country with a view to utilising the many talented teachers who are unable to work full-time or to travel to a school centre;
- develop a languages policy so that all children develop full competence in English plus one other language;
- refocus attention within our educational institutions on the multi-cultural dimension of our nation; and,
- deliberately foster a sense of national pride and unity through our educational institutions.
TERTIARY EDUCATION
The key to our nation's economic and social future lies in education. While tertiary education cannot be allowed to be solely focused on skills for employment, such focus must be a significant element of any system. The tertiary system must be designed to maximise both economic and social objectives, enhancing needed vocational skills and academic acumen.
New Zealand First supports the general principles of the tertiary reforms.
PLANS
New Zealand First will:
- in its first year introduce the first step towards a universal student allowance and proceed over three years to full implementation by progressively increasing the family income levels at which the abatement commences and when allowances disappear;
- increase the proportion of the tertiary tuition subsidy to at least that of the 1998 budget, in real terms;
- increase the proportion of tertiary tuition subsidies for specific courses to increase the number of appropriately qualified graduates (e.g. science and technology);
- review the costs of gaining initial medical qualifications, including exploring the option of a 'bonding' system for medical students who are willing to trade-off student loan abatements for staying in New Zealand;
- introduce further scholarships (especially at post graduate level) to ensure that we keep our best students and provide for research and development expertise;
- introduce a system that encourages graduates to provide a professional service for areas of New Zealand that suffer from a shortage of such services by way of fees abatement;
- set interest rates on student loans at Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 2%;
- only charge interest (whilst the student is engaged in study) at a rate equal to the CPI;
- require all tertiary institutions to provide pre-enrolment information on potential local and national vocational opportunities as an outcome of any course, or qualification;
- ensure that young people who are enrolled for the community wage are engaged in one of the following activities (a) seasonal employment (b) industry training (c) extended conservation or youth service corps or (d) for those at risk, military-type discipline training;
- work towards developing a new class of tertiary institution - a University of Technology; and,
- provide for a differential funding regime for provincial polytechnics
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