Making sure students actually attend school and have their progress measured are the big issues the Education Minister needs to tackle to lift performance, National’s Education spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

“More than 30 per cent of students are not attending school on a regular basis, and the research is unequivocal that missing just a few days harms a student’s achievement.

“We need to focus on making sure students are actually in class, and teachers have all the tools they need to properly measure how their students are performing.

“Labour abolished national standards for purely ideological reasons but has not replaced them with anything. Schools can’t help students who need more support if they can’t benchmark their progress at regular intervals.

“In every single international measure, the performance of New Zealand students has declined in foundational subjects like Maths, English and Science over the past 20 years.

“The Principals’ Federation is to be congratulated for demanding the Ministry of Education urgently grapple with the declining performance of students in foundational subjects.”