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2008 Education: Crusade for Literacy and Numeracy
CRITICAL STEPS ON THE LADDER OF OPPORTUNITY
One out of five New Zealand children leaves school without the qualifications and skills they need to succeed. Those children are New Zealand’s future, and National is determined to improve their prospects.
We will tackle children’s learning problems early by launching a Crusade for Literacy and Numeracy.
National’s Crusade for Literacy and Numeracy will help ensure that children get the basic skills they need to do well at school, to prepare for the workforce, and to climb the ladder of opportunity.
The Crusade starts with 10 critical steps. We will provide an additional $47 million a year for these to be funded from within the allocation for new spending of $1.75 billion outlined in National’s fiscal policy.
OUR PRINCIPLES
• Higher standards in education.
• A globally competitive economy.
• Building opportunity for all.
NATIONAL’S FIRST 10 STEPS
1. Set National Standards in literacy and numeracy.
2. Require every primary and intermediate school pupil to be assessed regularly against National Standards.
3. Require primary and intermediate schools to report to parents in plain English about how their child is doing compared to National Standards and compared to other children their age.
4. Provide targeted funding of $18 million a year to assist primary and intermediate schools to give an extra hand to those pupils who are not meeting National Standards.
5. Refocus the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office on supporting schools in the Crusade for Literacy and Numeracy.
6. Provide extra support to underperforming schools to ensure their pupils are on track to achieve National Standards.
7. Get tough on truancy by prosecuting parents of persistent truants and giving schools an extra $4 million a year to crack down on truants.
8. Give schools extra help to deal with disruptive pupils, including an extra $2 million a year for the Interim Response Fund.
9. Support teaching excellence by:
• Reviewing teacher training.
• Encouraging schools to co-operate to expand successful teaching methods.
• Celebrating the success of top-performing teachers with an extra $2 million a year for excellence awards.
• Supporting reductions in pupil-to-teacher ratios in new-entrant classes.
10. Improve special education services by:
• Increasing Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS) funding by $18 million a year for pupils with the highest special education needs.
• Expanding special education schools and encouraging the development of satellite special education classes. We will provide an extra $3 million a year for this.
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