Newsletter
The Leaders’ Debate
7 October
Last night National leader Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins met in TVNZ’s first leaders’ debate, a month out from the 7 November election. Education took up about five minutes. Here’s what each leader said.
Curriculum and qualifications
- Hipkins: Labour would “slow down” the rollout of the new curriculum and qualifications. Supports a bipartisan approach to curriculum and assessment but National had walked away from the cross-party approach he built as Education Minister.
- Luxon: Hipkins should “get in behind” the reforms. Supports a bipartisan approach to education that’s why National reached out to Labour’s education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime but she didn’t answer Erica Stanford’s emails or calls. When the coalition government came into power with 45% of kids attending school regularly, by the time reaching Y9, only half at the standard in reading, a quarter in mathematics. Hipkins “without doubt” New Zealand’s worst education minister and Education Minister Erica Stanford “quite simply the best”.
- Hipkins: acknowledged that school attendance collapsed during Covid, when children were told to stay home if sick. Luxon dismissed this as “an excuse”.
Quick-fire answers
| Issue | Chris Hipkins (Labour) | Christopher Luxon (National) |
|---|---|---|
| Parents taking kids out of school for holiday | “I would prefer they didn’t”. | No. |
| School cellphone ban | Keep it, despite having criticised it in the past. | Keep it. Called Labour’s change of position a “great flip flop”. |
| Charter schools | Scrap them. | They’re working. Said charter schools are “getting great results”. |
| An hour a day of reading, writing and maths | Scrap it. Schools should decide how to deliver the curriculum. | Keep it. |
| School lunches | Bring back free, locally produced healthy lunches. Admitted it will cost more than the current scheme. Will prioritise the funding. | Didn’t answer directly. Hipkins bought a classroom for $1.2m, we built them for $600,000. |
Child poverty and schooling
Asked why the Government is well off its child poverty targets, Luxon pointed to education. He said 176,000 more children are now attending school regularly, and that early childhood education is helping children start school ready to learn. Hipkins said the way to reduce child poverty is to lift incomes, create jobs for parents and bring down the cost of living.
What the audience thought
Three-quarters of TVNZ’s panel of undecided voters said they would support a cross-party approach to education.
Where this leaves parents
The two leaders offered clearly different directions.
National wants to keep its reforms moving at pace and continue to roll out a knowledge-rich, internationally benchmarked curriculum, with standardised assessment and reporting to parents. National wants to replace NCEA with a robust, internationally recognised qualification.
Labour would slow the reforms down, hand decisions on the curriculum and NCEA to an “independent” curriculum council, and give schools more say over how and what they teach our kids.
Whoever forms the next government, the Parents’ Alliance will keep pushing for parents - YOU - to have a real voice in these decisions. We will relentlessly push for student progress and achievement to be the paramount objective of school boards, clear standards and reporting so parents know whether their child is progressing and achieving, and an education system that catches children early if they’re not.
Things you can do today
Tell ten people to check out parentsalliance.nz.
Share parentsalliance.nz on social media and WhatsApp groups.
Join the Parents’ Alliance Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.
Membership is free, and numbers matter. The more parents standing behind us, the harder it will be to exclude us.
Donate to the Parents' Alliance
Until next time,
Cameron Bagrie (Chair) and Anya Zohrab (Executive Director)
The Parents’ Alliance Te Kotahitanga o ngā Mātua, Le Lotogatasi o Mātua, 家长联盟, पारिवारिक मंच