Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
David Cunliffe
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David Shearer
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Education policy
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Labour Party
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Laptops and iPads
,
Manaiakalani Trust
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Nikki Kaye
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Public-Private partnerships
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SkyCity
This weekend was supposed to be all about the Labour Party releasing some bold, union-driven education policy. Instead it has been all about moa, Mr Cunliffe being sorry for being a man, and other senior Labour MP's expressing their solidarity with David Cunliffe for being sorry for being a man.
And then came the ultimate indignity. Labour has been sledged by Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye in this presser for recycling policies; check this out:
Nikki Kaye5 July, 2014
Labour playing catch up on 21st century schools
Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye says Labour has clearly not done its homework in the education area and is promoting "new ideas" that have already been put in place by National.
“Most of what Labour has announced today is already being delivered by the Government through its 21st century schools programme. We have a massive build plan underway to modernise school facilities, upgrade school broadband networks and partner with communities to provide digital hubs through those networks. Our Ultrafast broadband and rural broadband initiatives are delivering fibre broadband with uncapped data to nearly every school in New Zealand.
"Labour's announcements today prove they have no idea what is already going on."
Nikki Kaye goes on to berate Labour over initiatives it has proposed, many of which are already happening:
Labour want to put money into professional learning development for ICT over the next few years. National has already invested $35 million in Professional Learning and Development, specifically targeted at learning with digital technologies.
Labour want to build an unspecified number of new schools and classrooms by 2030. Under the National government, hundreds of millions of dollars has been spent building new classrooms and upgrading older schools with the help of the Future Investment Fund, which Labour opposes. National has opened 12 new schools in the past three years in areas of growth.
And Labour wants to enable students to access the internet at home. Last year, National announced a change in policy to enable schools to extend their school internet to the surrounding area so students and families can access the internet from home.
Ms Kaye said the device subsidy programme also did not appear to have been thought through.
“There is an amazing lack of detail. Are they really going to make the subsidy available to every one of the 580,000 children in years 4 to 13? How do they plan to deal with rapid changes in technology? Is the plan limited to one device throughout the period of the student's time in school? If not, how many devices? How are they planning to deal with the interest costs? All these questions must be answered.
Nikki Kaye's questions are absolutely valid questions, and they are ones Labour must provide immediate answers to. Otherwise this looks just like policy made on the hoof, and we have already seen a number of examples this year of poorly conceived Labour Party policy not standing up to scrutiny. However attractive the policy may seem on the surface, the devil will be in the detail. And as has been seen over and over this year, Labour is not a detail party.
There's a final, school-related sledge from Nikki Kaye:
“Labour has simply not done their homework. It really does make you wonder what they have been doing over the past six years.
“Our Future Focussed Learning report, sets out the direction the National government is going.
“Labour really needs to research what's happening and catch up,” Ms Kaye says.
One of the most interesting aspects of the laptops and iPads policy was a comment in the Herald story on the announcement yesterday; check this out:
It is based on the Manaiakalani Trust programme in Tamaki, which works with 12 lower decile schools to provide students with a netbook and 24/7 access to the internet.
Interestingly, the Manaiakalani Trust is essentially a public-private partnership, which receives considerable support from corporates. And even more interestingly, look who one of those corporates is:
Now we don't have any problem whatsoever with SKYCITY Auckland Community Trust supporting the Manaiakalani Trust to improve educational outcomes for vulnerable New Zealand children. In fact we think it's commendable, and socially responsible. But given the amount of hot air expended by Labour MP's towards SkyCity in the past, not to mention the angst caused to Labour leader David Shearer last year when it was revealed that he and a number of Labour MP's accepted corporate hospitality from SkyCity at Eden Park.
This policy release from Labour gets a resounding "not achieved". It has some good points, but in trying to be all things for all people, Labour has missed the mark by some distance.
