The government has confirmed an end to the controversial National Standards, with moves to scrap schools reporting to the Ministry of Education and parents receiving report cards measured against National Standards.
However the Government won't decide on an alternative until late next year.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today "the government has stopped National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori and will instead focus on the progress and achievement of all children across the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa".
"Schools and parents have lost confidence in National Standards. They were too narrow, neither national nor standard," he said in a statement.
From the start of 2018, schools will not have to report yearly National Standards to the Ministry of Education.
"The process was little more than a compliance exercise and was a major distraction to schools. There are better ways to build a nationwide picture."
Parents will still get report cards at least twice a year on their child's progress across maths, reading and writing, but it will not be measured against National Standards.
"The reports, written in plain English, will relate to where their child is at, at a given point, and the progress shift that has occurred," he said.
Mr Hipkins said the new approach will help to "strengthen" partnerships between the home, school and kura.
He'll take a proposal to Cabinet in September 2018 outlining a replacement.
National introduced National Standards in 2010, to an outcry from unions. Mr Hipkins says reading levels of Kiwi children have dropped to the "lowest level on record" since then.
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