July 30, 2018
National’s class size policy opportunistic
Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis says National's education policy switch would be funny if not for the damage they did to the sector while in Government.
In his first speech as leader to a National Party conference, Simon Bridges promised to reduce primary school class sizes, as well as reintroduce charter schools.
Mr Davis says Mr Bridges may have has a light-bulb moment, but it can't be taken seriously.
"They had nine years to reduce class sizes. In fact their policy was to increase class sizes to reduce the number of teachers. I think they are being opportunistic. They know the teachers will be looking to negotiate their contracts so they are jumping in now and they just don't believe what they are saying. I certainly don't believe them," he says.
Mr Davis says a big task for Labour is finding teachers to replace those who left the sector in the past nine years because of National's policies.
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