PPTA: Education (Update) Amendment Bill an opportunity lost

<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The government has ignored children&comma; parents&comma; teachers and other education experts by only making minor and technical changes to the Education &lpar;Update&rpar; Amendment Bill&period; This is not a good way to create legislation&comma; and is a lost opportunity to take proactive steps to improve schools and education for New Zealand’s young people&period;<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Post Primary Teachers&&num;8217&semi; Association &lpar;PPTA&rpar; president Jack Boyle says&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The abundant evidence that full-time online schools fail children has been completely ignored&period; The Bill also opens the door for corporates to take over educating New Zealand’s children and young people&period; Teachers&comma; parents and students themselves know that you can’t just take business principles and apply them to education&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Parents don’t want their children treated like products to be sold to the highest bidder&period; Every child is an individual with their own hopes and dreams&comma; and you need skilled teaching professionals who care about the welfare of each child to bring out their unique strengths&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;That’s never going to happen by plonking children in front of a computer screen or by turning our kids’ education into a money-making scheme for business&comma;” says Mr Boyle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;For the minister of education not to seek the advice of the education sector in the first place and to then ignore the evidence of hundreds of submitters is a cavalier approach to making law&comma; to say the least&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;