Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
The New Zealand Independent Schools Association in 1990 asked the country's two major political parties to provide a policy statement on private education. Dr. Lockwood Smith, National's spokesman on education provided the following statement for the National Party. The statement was presented in the runup to national elections.
The National Party's ideals have always been to solidly support the right to democratic and free choice. In education National, and I, follow that line rigorously.
That is why our education policy for a new National Government ensures parents are given the maximum choice of schools, both independent and State, that they may enrol their children in.
National, unlike Labour wants to ensure private Education is a realistic alternative for parents. To that end National will reinstate the 20 per cent teacher salary grant.
Labour abolished that last year. National will reinstate it in its first Budget.
I know independent schools welcome this initiative. I have spoken with independent school managements and the feed-back on the policy has been positive. But the 20 percent teacher salary grant will not stop there. National intends that grant to progressively increase to a level equivalent to a 50 per cent grant.
You see, the private sector in New Zealand is too small for the good health of our education system, and that is why we are taking these steps to ensure the future of independent schools.
Recently I visited Dunedin on a tour of different educational institutes. One of the highlights of my visit was a stop at Columba College. Columba is an example of how the Government's removal of the salary grant has effected the health of our independent education system. It is one of the few independent schools left south of the Waitaki River.
Dunedin and other southern centres used to sport many excellent independent schools. Since Labour gained power many of those schools have decided to integrate.
Columba College does not want to be forced to integrate. National's reinstatement of the salary grant will ensure it does not integrate against its will, its manage-ment told me.
Another factor that effects independent schools considerably is the boarding allowance paid to families whose home is far from a school. That allowance has not risen for many years.
Briefly I would like to outline some of the basic platforms of the rest of National's innovative and exciting education policy. Some, like its widely publicised scrapping of Labour's disastrous tertiary fee and the removal of means testing students' parents through National's STUDY RIGHT initiative, you will be well aware of. But there are other policies that the news media give little time to, probably because they are not controversial.
But a policy does not have to be controversial to be good. And National's education ideas are based on a sound common sence approach to education.
Here is what National needs to be done to ensure New Zealanders enjoy a high standard of living in the future through the investment they put in education today:
Parents as First Teachers is a widely supported concept that will see a new parent education and support programme assisting them to fulfil their vital role as their
children's first teachers. It will tackle health and development problems that arise
between birth and three years of age. Research shows that health and development problems during these crucial years are instrumental in many of the behavioural learning and underachievement problems we see in our children today.
Achievement Initiativen is a policy clearly focusing early school education on achievement in the "core" cornpeten-cies: English, mathematics, and science and technology.
National intends to retain School Certificate. It is also going to maintain University Entrance Bursary and reinstate separate Scholarship examinations for those senior pupils who want to pursue an academic programme. National's aim is to provide school programmes that will encourage students to stay on longer.
Then there is National's Training Opportunities Programme and new modular National Certificate. These will be available to sixth and seventh formers.
National Certificate is a vocationally orientated programme leading to a credible polytechnic qualification and may be studied in part at school, polytechnic and the workplace. Training Opportunities is for those senior students without a qualification. It provides a starting point to the National Certificate
