Anne Tolley

Wellington, July 2 NZPA - Principals with concerns over the national standards should contact the Education Ministry or the minister herself, not issue media statements, Education Minister Anne Tolley says.

Mrs Tolley will appear before 550 principals from the New Zealand Principals Federation in Queenstown today.

The principals yesterday voted to oppose the standards.

National standards have already been introduced in schools. They will be used to assess children against benchmarks in reading, writing and maths with regular reports sent to parents.

The Government already faced opposition over the standards with the Auckland Primary Principals' Association telling members to boycott training to implement them and several protests by education union New Zealand Educational Institute.

Mrs Tolley has said school boards which allow teachers not to implement the standards would be breaking the law and would be fired.

Yesterday the principals said the standards would not deliver the outcomes they intended and they would tell the minister that. They sought a complete revision of the standards and they supported Southland and Auckland principals who recommended non-attendance at training, the Southland Times reported.

Opponents of the standards believe they will not reward progress and will mark children as failures even if they were improving.

Mrs Tolley told those opposed not to issue media statements or threaten to boycott the training.

"Get involved, be professional and add your professional expertise into making sure we get these standards right," she said.

No school has officially contacted the Education Ministry to say they would boycott the standards.

"We're getting really positive feedback from parents right around the country, they're actually the silent majority in all of this."

Parents want information on their children, Mrs Tolley said.

She said she would remind the principals today that they are public servants and this was a government policy.

"If they have concerns they should bring them to me or to the ministry and there's plenty of opportunities for them to do that."

The first national standard reports to parents would be issued today, the last day of this school term.