National’s $379m school pledge

National has made a pitch to parents at the opening of its election campaign, with a pledge to offer online access to assessment as well as a boost to language teaching.

Amid chaotic and noisy scenes as thousands of supporters crammed a West Auckland stadium yesterday, Prime Minister Bill English made a pitch to core National voters with an attack on Labour’s plans for tax increases – and veiled references to rival Jacinda Ardern’s lack of experience.

But the flagship announcement was a $379 million education package including digital learning for senior students, more resources for maths, and a guarantee that all primary school students will be able to learn a second language if they choose to.

National’s campaign launch date was set months ago when the election looked like a done deal and Labour was struggling to raise its support above 30 per cent.

But Jacinda Ardern’s rise to the leadership after Andrew Little stepped down has seen Labour’s support soar and resulted in an unofficial early start to the campaign nearly two weeks ago.

English’s speech largely concentrated on National’s record in office and the education package, which also included an expansion of the student assessment system National Standards.

Included was $48 m invested in ‘‘new digital learning opportunities’’ for Year 12 and 13 students.

Under the programme, new digital academies will offer 1000 students specialised, IT-focused learning. ‘‘They’ll be similar to our Trades Academies, and they’ll be just as successful,’’ English said.

The second part of the package is a $126m investment to raise maths achievement for primary school students. ‘‘We’ll help 1200 teachers a year complete extra university papers targeted at teaching maths to primary students.’’

The third part was a $160m investment to give all primary school children the opportunity to learn a second language. ‘‘Schools will choose from at least 10 priority languages, which we expect to include Mandarin, French, Spanish, Japanese and Korean, along with Te Reo and New Zealand Sign Language.’’

An expanded National Standards scheme, called National Standards Plus, would allow parents to track their child’s progress in more detail online.

Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins said National was ‘’’doubling down’’ on its National Standards system, which was not improving student achievement.

‘‘Kids in New Zealand are overassessed. What we need is less reporting, more teaching.’’

He questioned how teachers would find the time to update records for continual online access.

Education union NZEI said plans to spend millions building a computer tool to track children’s progress, ‘‘based on shonky National Standards, is an obsession with data gone mad’’.

"We'll help 1200 teachers a year complete extra university papers targeted at teaching maths." Prime Minister Bill English