NZEI: Education bill puts politics ahead of children

<h4>Concerns of educators have been ignored as the government pushes through legislation based on political objectives and cost saving&comma; rather than what is best for children&comma; claims teachers&&num;8217&semi; union NZEI&period;<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>The Education &lpar;update&rpar; Amendment Bill will be read in Parliament for a final time this week and contains numerous changes to our education system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart said that while the public focus had been on cohort entry for four-year-olds&comma; the legislation contained other changes&comma; such as online schools&comma; that would have a far more serious impact on children&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is a great risk that children who are considered &OpenCurlyQuote;too hard’ for schools to manage are going to be herded into online schools&comma; where they will be at even greater risk of isolation and failure&period; Why do politicians think that a model that has demonstrably failed overseas will somehow work here&quest;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We need to be doing our best for every child&comma; not looking for ways for the government to save money or for corporates to profit from our children&comma;” said Ms Stuart&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Our current heartland tour has also found that parents are extremely worried that online schools will be used to justify the closure of small rural schools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This legislation has nothing to do with what is best for children&period; The input of educators&comma; parents and children was completely ignored in the race for political expediency&comma;” she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;