National could scrap fees-free programme
The National Party could reduce class sizes to 20 pupils for ages 6-7 years and scrap fees-free education if elected next year.
Its rethink of the fees-free programme could include changing the rate at which student loans are paid back or creating education savings accounts.
The party released a discussion document on education yesterday, featuring a series of policy promises and proposals. These include a recommitted promise to reduce primary school class sizes and ensure children can learn a second language, as well as a rollback of the reform of polytechs.
Proposals floated but not committed to include a ‘‘child passport’’ progress record, stricter criteria for those training to be teachers, a body to manage school property, and random ‘‘spotchecks’’ on early childhood centres to make sure they meet standards.
National Party leader Simon Bridges said education was a bridge to getting past problems children inherit. ‘‘With the right education we can overcome the challenges some children face purely because of the circumstances they were born into.’’
The discussion document comes a day after the Government announced sweeping changes to how schools are governed.
Changes to fees-free
National has been critical of the fees-free programme, which provides a year of free university study or two years of free trades training. The party said the scheme had not increased student enrolments while Labour said low unemployment had kept a lot of people from considering study.
National has not yet fully committed to scrapping fees-free but has put forward several options to change the scheme. These included shifting fees-free to the final year of study – received on completion – instead of the first.
Another idea was a Singaporestyle ‘‘education saver’’ system that would act as a quasiKiwiSaver for children to slowly save up for study during their life, with parents and the Government paying in.
One model the party had looked at for this would give students about $3000 in state funding for their first year of study – about a quarter of the amount available under fees-free.
This did not include money parents might pay into the account. ‘‘Fees-free is an expensive failure,’’ Bridges said. ‘‘You could do something that targets those that need the most help as well as the education saver.’’
Bridges said he did not think it would be that politically difficult to remove fees-free and replace it with something else.
‘‘[Students] absolutely want the money and will take it. But I also sense a very real cynicism about this . . . they understand it is not good public policy.’’
Smaller class sizes
Last year, National promised to reduce primary school class sizes but yesterday revealed a set of ratios to go out for consultation. (Schools set exact class sizes but are funded based on a ratio of students to teachers.) Those ratios are:
■ 1:15 for year 1 (unchanged).
■ 1:20 for years 2 and 3 (changed from 1:23 currently).
■ 1:25 for years 3, 4, 5 and 6 (changed from 1:29 currently). This would require many more teachers. National MP Nikki Kaye said this would cost between $160 million and $200m but would not happen overnight thanks to the teacher shortage.