28 Aug 2017

Languages, maths headline National's education plans

From Morning Report, 7:14 am on 28 August 2017

The National Party is promising to spend hundreds of millions of dollars teaching primary school children a second language and improving their maths.

The party's election campaign launch at the weekend also doubled down on the national standards in reading, writing and maths, promising National Standards Plus - a system that will report children's progress as well as their achievement.

"I think enabling all primary schools to learn teach a second language is a bit of a bolter, I don't think many people would have seen that coming. It's the biggest area of spending in the weekend's announcement, with National promising $160 million over four years for this," RNZ education reporter John Gerritsen says.