Alarming new data from the Ministry of Education has confirmed the sorry state of our education system, with huge numbers of Kiwi kids failing in reading, writing and maths under Labour, National’s Education spokesperson Erica Stanford says.

“According to the latest evaluation of the Government’s literacy and numeracy standards, just 64 per cent achieved the minimum reading standard, 56 per cent passed numeracy, and staggeringly, just 34 per cent could pass the writing standard.

“Students will need to attain all three standards to pass NCEA.

“These standards have been designed to assess whether students can do the basics in reading, writing and maths. The fact that at least two-thirds of students would fail at least one of these standards is truly depressing.

“Labour has no plan. Their only action has been to release a waffly strategy document which failed to explain what concrete steps they will take to turn around our falling standards.

“The Government urgently needs to get back to basics to ensure that students begin their NCEA journey with the reading, writing and maths skills they need so they don’t continue to fall behind.

“This starts with students spending at least one hour every day on numeracy and literacy in primary school.

“We also need to make sure that children are actually in school. Currently, less than half our kids are attending school regularly, with over 100,000 chronically absent. Attendance is the most important indicator of student achievement and education, but under Labour, school attendance has fallen off a cliff.

“Without urgent change, our literacy and numeracy standards will continue to decline and our children will continue to fall behind the rest of the world. This is not just a social failure but a future economic crisis.

“Labour’s lack of delivery in Education is failing an entire generation of children.”