David Seymour: Deputy Prime Minister on school leavers, Labour declining requests to collaborate on the NCEA reform

The Deputy Prime Minister says he'd sack Willow Jean-Prime for declining numerous Government requests for collaboration on NCEA reform. 

Documents show Labour's education spokesperson declined an advisor's meeting and didn't answer a text and multiple emails from Education Minister Erica Stanford regarding planned changes to NCEA. 

David Seymour told Mike Hosking if he were Labour's leader, he would drop her because there are better people for the job.  

He says he wouldn't know what to do because she may be the best option that Labour has.  

Seymour says we need alternative schooling options to keep students in schools, with more than ten and a half thousand students leaving school last year with no educational qualifications. 

Ministry of Education data reveals 16% didn't achieve NCEA Level 1 or above – 6% more than in 2017. 

He told Hosking the education system has become less appealing because children don't believe they're missing something valuable.  

There's also ethnic disparity, with 28% of Māori school leavers having achieved no qualifications, compared to 19% of Pacific leavers and 14% of Pākehā leavers. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the most alarming story of the week to my
eye anyway, was the increase yet again of kids leaving
school with literally no qualification. Sixteen percent had nothing. It's
thousands of kids. It's our highest figure in a decade.
David Seymour's Associate Education Minister, of course, and it is
with us very good morning morning.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Way.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
So Nicolad tried yesterday on the program to talk about
the curriculum, and the curriculum is fantastic and the changes
are great. But I'm my suspicion as the curriculum is
not going to solve the problem. Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, I completely support everything the government is doing, of course,
it's all sensible stuff. We should have one classroom with
one teacher, with kids facing the front, learning a curriculum
of rich knowledge, and then getting examined on a test
that actually gives you a score out of one hundred
and requires you to learn all the knowledge. Just pick

(00:44):
and choose certain unit standards out of the NCAA. All
of that is one hundred percent correct. But actually all
of that should be obvious. It's only because things have
been so disastrous, whether it's Techia paratus, big barnyard classrooms,
the NCA itself, the so called world leading New Zealand

(01:05):
curriculum that goes back to the Clark government of two
thousand and seven. So many crazy things have been done
that what Eric is doing is being cheered on, where
actually it's perfectly obvious stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
My problem with these kids leaving is this. I mean,
there's always going to be a bunch of no hopers,
but the bunch of no hopers is increasing in numbers.
Are we doing something wrong or are we just got
a bunch of no hopers and we have to put.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Up with it? Well, look, I think the education systems
become less appealing because you don't have a knowledgeable adult
standing at the front telling your stuff. That feels like
if you miss out, you're missing out on something valuable.
And that's because of the erosion of the curriculum and
so on. But I think it's also true that while
it's absolutely critical to run the government education system, well

(01:55):
we need alternatives. And you know you won't surprise you
to know my version of that is chartischool. And I'll
give you an example of what that looks like. Tangibly
in christ Church, christ Church North College, a group of
four state school principals got together and said, look, we
have children that we cannot serve under our model. They
have endorsed a new charter school, christ Church North College,

(02:18):
and the way it works is they take children who
have been totally disengaged. Every kid at that school had
either stopped attending or at least was not attending at
all regularly. In twenty twenty four. Now every single kid
is attending dramatically more than they were. About half of
them are attending regularly, which is not bad. There's a

(02:40):
lot of state schools where that's not the case. And
with kids who weren't attending at all, it's a good thing.
And why is that Well, basically because they've taken each
of these kids, worked out why they're disengaged, given them
a program to get some foundational skills, and started to
set them up with a trade in the future. State

(03:01):
schools there's some valiant people that often don't have the
ability to do that. If you set up a school
with flexible funding, same money, greater flexibility and so you
guys need to do something different, then I think you
can start to fix some of these problem right.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
That's encouraging. Would you sack will a Jeon Prime. I mean,
this is inexcusable, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, I would because of course there's lots of other
act MPs I could put into her place. But if
I was just Senda's little helper, who, by the way,
is returning to the scene of the crime with extra
petrol this weekend, then I don't know what I'd do,
because she could be the best option that labor has.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Nice to talk to you, have a good weekend, David Seymour,
Associate Education Minister. At least there's something out of that
which is encouraging for.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
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