Schools making good progress with standards: Tolley

Education Minister Anne Tolley says 80 percent of schools are making good progress with implementing National Standards but that is being disputed by the primary teachers union and the Labour Party.

Mrs Tolley today cited an Education Review Office (ERO) report which she said reinforced what parents, principals and teachers had been telling her.

"The standards have only been in place since February but this report clearly shows that the vast majority of schools are working hard to implement them in a professional and positive way," she said.

"I would expect the figures to be even better now, given that many of the schools were evaluated towards the beginning of the first term, when the standards had only just been introduced."

Mrs Tolley said the ERO's recommendations were helpful and her ministry would follow up on schools still needing support to work constructively with National Standards.

National Standards are benchmarks in reading, writing and maths which pupils are tested against, with reports sent to parents.

Primary teachers union the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) said the report showed only 19 percent of schools were well prepared for National Standards while 61 percent had "some preparation" under way.

"Many schools undertook professional training and struggled to get towards minimal compliance with the standards in terms one and two," NZEI president Frances Nelson said.

"But that picture is changing as more and more schools see the flawed reality of implementing standards that are not tested, have major design flaws and have been implemented with haste and without support from the sector."

Labour's education spokesman Trevor Mallard said the ERO report showed 80 percent of schools were still not well prepared to implement the standards.

"If that's the sort of standard she sets herself, then schools and parents can be really worried," he said.