The gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged is rapidly growing in New Zealand and we have soared up the OECD inequality rankings. The gap between the highest and lowest paid groups in our society has now reached a level where we are seeing 20% of New Zealand children living in poverty.  The upshot of this, amongst other consequences, is that too many New Zealand children start their day without an adequate breakfast.

National’s education policy, released yesterday, will go down as the lowest point in this year’s election campaign,’ says the President of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation, Peter Simpson.

‘Parents, communities, Boards of Trustees and the teaching professionals who have tried for three years to engage the Minister in intelligent discussions about National’s flawed standards policy now know that this government has no intention of listening to them,’ he said.

The Principal of Moerewa School in Northland, Keri Milne-Ihimaera is stunned that the Minister of Education, Anne Tolley, has directed her to close their highly successful senior secondary school class, despite the 100% Maori student cohort achieving pass rates in NCEA levels one, two and three that are all higher than the national pass rates across the country. These are results almost unheard of for Maori students.