I may be wrong but . . . .

Education Minister Anne Tolley continues to paint herself into a corner over the government’s National Literacy Standards policy.

I heard her interviewed on the radio this morning, following the announcement that she has lost the tertiary education portfolio – purportedly so she can put all her efforts into forcing through the Standards policy. I was flinching with embarrassment as she spoke (one could easily imagine it was through gritted teeth), doggedly raising the same old arguments we’ve heard over and over for the past several months. (I wrote on this topic last year on this page)

It’s hard not to be convinced that the stripping of her second portfolio in order to concentrate on one policy is anything but a demotion. The one plus that she can take from this is that, curiously, John Key is still backing her policy. (Everyone else is ducking for cover.)

Those same old arguments – I’m getting really sick of them. Every time it goes something like this.

Question: Why introduce national standards?

Tolley: We know have 150,000 kids who are underachieving. We have to do something to address that.

Q: What are you proposing should be done?

T: We need to show what they’re supposed to be achieving, and we need to test them to see who’s not achieving.

Q: How will that help the 150,000 underachievers?

T: It will show them what they should be capable of so they can be considered achievers.

Q: How will testing them make them achieve any better?

T: Look, there are 150,000 underachievers and we must do something to change this national shame and waste.

Q: But we already have standards testing in most schools. What will this add?

T: National standards will tell parents and children what they need to be achieving, what are acceptable achievements in numeracy and literacy.

Q: Anyhow, how do we know there are 150,000 underachievers?

T: We’ve asked the schools who have tested and that’s what we’ve found.

Q: So how will doing the tests again achieve anything? If we already know there are that many not achieving, how will testing them again and again solve anything.

T: Look, National got into government promising to do something to address the problem of 150,000 underachievers so here, we’re doing something.

And round …. and round …. and round again, the same old “logic”. Does she think we’re all simple-minded, or does she hope there are enough idiots among us to not see the lack of any common sense here?

As for her other major weapon to handle reporters: that huge numbers of teachers agree with her but it’s only the unions that are standing in her way – this proves to me that she simply is no longer listening and just wants to fight to the end to show who’s boss.

Anne Tolley has painted herself (and John Key in the process) into a corner and cannot now escape without creating an even bigger mess. How this will resolve I have no idea, but I see very little chance of no-one being hurt in the process.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Education, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.