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Louis Guy - Source: Breakfast -
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An Auckland primary school principal who resigned over the roll-out of National Standards says he could no longer put up with a system that is "bad for kids".
Louis Guy stepped down after serving at New Windsor School for 22 years, 18 of them as principal.
Speaking to TV ONE's Breakfast this morning, Guy said after battling against the policy for two years, the final straw was when the Ministry of Education started enforcing schools into operating with the standards.
"Schools are now moving into a regime of trying to protect the kids, protect the school and protect the system from the worst aspects of these standards," Guy said.
"I seriously believe they're bad for kids and so I wasn't willing to move into that next stage."
He said National Standards require students to achieve targets by a particular year level.
"You're giving a goal to a child that's struggling that you know they can't meet. That's not a good thing for educators to do or for parents to cooperate with."
While the point of National Standards is to address the issue of underachievement, the system actually "does nothing to teach children" and is "sort of a false promise", Guy said.
"Another issue is that the focus goes off all our wonderful broad curriculum and onto the important but very narrow aspects of numeracy and literacy."
He thinks the previous system was doing the job.
Leaving was a decision some people have not been happy about.
"But it was a decision professionally that I felt I had to make," he said.
More principals could follow suit
The Government says National Standards, which began in 2008, will show what children should be able to achieve in reading, writing and maths, and will help identify where some children may be struggling.
However, the President of the New Zealand Principals' Federation (NZPF) yesterday called for the Government to review the roll-out of National Standards before they are ramped up further.
Speaking to TV ONE's Breakfast yesterday, Paul Drummond said National Standards "hasn't really captured the hearts and minds of the profession".
"You have to respect Louis Guy for the position he's taken, which must have been a difficult personal and professional decision."
He said Guy's resignation is "only one of a few cases", but the sentiment is widespread.
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