National Standards fail pupils, says principal | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A Wairarapa school will come under special attention from the Ministry of Education after most of its students failed the National Standards benchmark last year.

But Dalefield School principal Kevin Jephson, who voluntarily went public about his school's results, said the standards were invalid and inappropriate for his school.

Only 11 per cent of Dalefield's students met the reading standard, 2 per cent the writing standard and 7 per cent the mathematics standard, he said.

"National Standards are a backward step for our kids. They're written to make kids walk on water, and if they can't do that, they fail.

"There's some troubled families out there and hungry kids, and the ministry expects high performing students, while we're struggling just to get them to school."

Jilly Tyler, Ministry of Education regional manager for central south, said the ministry would work closely with the school's board of trustees and Mr Jephson "to support them to raise learner achievement at their school".

"National Standards information enables the ministry to identify and target the type of support schools such as Dalefield need in order to achieve better results for their learners," Ms Tyler said.

Mr Jephson said the primary school sector had known all along the achievement components for National Standards were unrealistic for most primary schoolchildren.

"Schools have been placed in an untenable position and should not be expected to accommodate National Standards when they are clearly inadequate," he said.

Mr Jephson said the board of trustees backed his stance, and Dalefield had joined the nationwide anti-National Standards group Boards Taking Action.

But Gail Marshall, principal of Solway Primary School in Masterton, said she had utmost faith in National Standards as a workable system.

The standards were trialled at Solway ahead of being rolled out nationwide.

The 2011 assessment at Solway found 91 per cent of Years 4 to 6 pupils met the reading standard, 87 per cent the writing standard and 82 per cent the mathematics standard.

"What I like about the standards is that it shows very clearly what the kids need, and we can target that. This year we'll be concentrating on writing and maths and we can target toward that end."

She said the main concern was differing opinions of teachers about a pupil's learning status and progress, which could be overcome through close discussion and moderation.

Meanwhile, the education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, has called on the Government not to release school league tables based on National Standards.

Union president Ian Leckie said the information could be aggregated into crude league tables that would unfairly label students, schools and their communities. "They know that National Standards data is inconsistent and that each school is interpreting the standards differently," he said.

"Aggregating that data into national or local league tables that give the impression of ranking school effectiveness would be unfair," he said.

Mr Leckie said league tables would also create unhealthy competition between schools and promote massaging of student achievement and a "teaching to the test" approach.

"Is this really what we want for our world-leading education system and our children?"