Kate Hawkesby: The same Labour that now wants to build roads, also now wants to clamp down on student achievement

The same Labour Party that now wants to build roads all of a sudden, also now wants to clamp down on student achievement.

It wants to mandate reading writing and maths ‘core teaching requirements’ across all schools.

So, in essence, they want to get serious now on education.

After six years of abandoning every fundamental core principle there was in regards to student achievement and learning.

Two things immediately jump to mind here, one, since when did Labour abandon all its mad cap ideology on what curriculums should look like and decide that the fundamental basics are in fact important in education, and two, what’s with now copying National?

The first answer is, after six years of failed experiments, ideological tweaking, and neglect of education, record truancy numbers, teacher shortages, uni drop outs and failed achievement standards - they’ve realised the jig is up.

The thought bubbles on rewriting curriculums and forcing Te Reo into every facet of every subject as a priority has left the fundamentals floundering.

Discovering how many students can’t pass basic tests, how many can’t read or write, how many can’t do maths, has perhaps focused the mind a bit? Or, does tanking in the polls now focus the mind on aiming at the centre voter?

Here’s the other thing with Labour’s latest education announcement, which by the way, I’m not sure how Jan Tinetti pulls off with a straight face, but they now want targets too.

Remember those? They were the things this Government abandoned and didn’t seem all that fond of. They want ‘learning progress steps’ to ‘track students’ progress on their core learning.’

Fancy that? Tracking progress?!

The Nat’s claim Labour’s stolen their policy, and it’s not an unreasonable claim given it smacks of National rhetoric - fundamentals, basics, progress, tracking achievement - these are all from the Nat’s vernacular on education.

You can almost hear Erica Stanford’s voice when you read those words.

And yet all of a sudden they’re coming out of Jan Tinetti’s mouth. They’re either stealing National policies to try to win centre voters and they truly believe they’ll get back in that way, or they’re just flying a big kite here in the hope voters may fall for it now, and forget about it later.

Like Kiwibuild, light rail, child poverty, and all the other promises they made that went nowhere.

What’s easy for political parties to do is spout promises and get headlines and make stuff sound appealing in a generic sense. What’s harder though, is cutting through the spin, and making it a reality. Making it part of the landscape.

I can tell you, having spoken many students who’ve looked to go into the education sphere at a tertiary level, that the key message they’re given by school, is that in order to be part of the education sector in any way, the most crucial thing they can do is learn Te Reo.

It’s not just students who say that, it’s teachers, careers advisors inside schools, and it’s Universities too.

The message current students who want to teach future students are getting, is that the most important thing they can learn, is Te Reo.

To have fundamentals and basics taught well, and to get the sort of cut through the Labour party now allegedly wants in education, means they have to look long and hard at where they misdirected that focus the past six years. How they aim to turn that around, is the key question.

Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.