Parents want to know how their kids are doing

Stuff reports:

Ginny Andersen appeared to subtly confirm a major Labour Party education policy at a conference last week, but her party says the policy had already been announced — it’s just almost no one had seen the announcement.

While speaking as part of a political panel beside education ministers Erica Stanford and David Seymour, Andersen said she would cancel “mandated testing” for primary-aged students.

Oh yes, let’s just give parents no information at all on how their kids are doing.

“Parents will receive that information in their next report card. Labour wants to take that away from parents,” she said, after the event.

She added, “Labour’s plan to scrap twice-yearly progress checks in reading, writing and maths shows they are out of touch with parents. Parents do not want less information about how their children are doing. They want more.”

Parents want more information than a 10 minute meeting twice a year. Now some schools are already very good at keeping parents informed, but many schools are not. A consistent standard of progress checks will mean all parents will be in the loop, and have clear and consistent information on their child’s progress.