Morgan takes on testing ‘obsession’

Economist Gareth Morgan’s political party has school testing in its sights, pledging to tackle New Zealand’s ‘‘obsession with ranking our children’’ by slashing the use of National Standards and the NCEA system.

Morgan’s The Opportunities Party has also pledged to introduce free, universal full-time early childhood education (ECE) in its newly released education policy.

While New Zealand had performed well in international education surveys, Morgan said the country had started to fall behind in recent years.

While white, middle- and upperclass Kiwi kids had ‘‘some of the best education outcomes in the world’’, more vulnerable children on the margins of society were being left behind.

‘‘Some children, generally those from poorer backgrounds, come to school around two years behind, and most of those never catch up despite the best efforts of the education system.’’

While it was natural for parents and politicians to want to hold teachers and students to account through testing, Morgan said ‘‘the evidence shows we are using up way too much precious learning time assessing our children.

‘‘We are obsessed with assessing and ranking our children when test results can only show part of a child’s development.’’

Assessment scores were a questionable method to measure student learning and a ‘‘downright awful’’ indicator of school performance, Morgan said.

His party would delay National Standards until Year 6, instead of Year 1 as at present.

It would also slash NCEA testing, giving those in their final year of school the choice of sitting NCEA Level 1, 2 or 3.

‘‘The extra time would be spent on learning and developing individual learning plans to ensure that students have the qualifications and skills they will need.’’

Morgan said the party would also scrap the publishing of national assessment figures, ‘‘unless they can be translated into true ‘added value’ results’’.

Morgan said ECE needed to be more of a priority, as investing in children at an early age led to the best chance of success.

The Government’s ‘‘scattergun’’ approach to funding ECE meant some families still struggled to find affordable childcare, he said.

‘‘Over time, we would like to see high-quality, free, universal fulltime ECE for children aged three years and over.’’

"We are obsessed with assessing and ranking our children when test results can only show part of a child's development." Gareth Morgan