Labour pays lip service to literacy

National's push for National Standards for literacy will puncture Labour's complacency over a generation of children who have missed out on sound teaching, says National's Education spokeswoman, Anne Tolley.

"It is a bit rich for Education Minister Chris Carter to be crowing about the results of a four-year literacy project involving almost 7,000 students over four years when 150,000 students still leave school unable to read, write, or do maths anywhere near their chronological age.

"National began the push for better literacy teaching in 1998 and has supported Labour's expansion of the Literacy Professional Development project, however these results today show every child should be getting good teaching, not just a handful as is the case in this study.

"Our National Standards policy, announced in April 2007, is one of the core platforms on which Leader John Key is standing. It will require primary schools to assess the progress of their students alongside others around the country, and schools will be required to report progress to parents.

"Thousands of children have missed out under Labour.

"Labour's education policies have failed for nine years and their answer is a small, select study.

"Our children deserve better than Labour's lip service to literacy.

"National will not stand by and let more children slip through the net."