Erica Stanford and Ginny Andersen: National and Labour's Education Spokespeople on curriculums, fundamentals, learning support

About this episode

There's potential for National and Labour to find common ground on education, despite disagreement over curriculum reforms. National's Erica Stanford told Ryan Bridge she tried to engage Labour while NCEA changes were being drafted, but to no avail. She says a recent meeting with Ginny Andersen revealed plenty they agree on —like the structured literacy mandate— but Labour still doesn't like the twice-yearly assessments or an hour of reading, writing, and maths each day. Andersen says learning support is one area where the parties could work together. She says there's an increasing number of children needing extra support, and it's one of the sector's biggest challenges going forward.…