Simon Bridges was this morning under siege over National's call for smaller class sizes - forced to deny it was a recycled Labour policy, with little evidence it benefited student learning.
In his speech at the National Party annual party conference in Auckland yesterday, Mr Bridges signalled he would increase the number of primary teachers to reduce class sizes if in Government.
This morning on TVNZ 1's Breakfast, the National leader scoffed at the idea he was copying a Labour education policy from two elections ago, which was rejected by former National Education Minister Hekia Parata.
"This is not a Labour Party policy. Come on, this is a policy of teachers, of parents, of Kiwis," Mr Bridges said.
"This is as old as the hills, and here's the deal about Labour, if they believed in it, when they've got billions to play with, why haven't they done it?"
Mr Bridges also insisted there were many education experts who believed smaller class sizes did facilitate student learning.
This was despite a meta-analysis of hundreds of studies, compiled by the Melbourne Education Research Institute, which concluded that class size had little affect on students' education, and that teacher quality was far more important.
"I don't disagree that what you've said, that quality of teaching is really important, and actually if you look at what Hekia Parata did in times when the dollars were tighter, that was right to do that. But actually we have got choices," Mr Bridges said.
"And it's certainly true as well, and there's evidence to back it up, not just evidence, it's what teachers say to me all the time, it's what parents say to me, it's what I know from my own childhood and my kids childhood that the number of teachers in terms of the attention the little ones get when they're growing really makes a difference too."
Mr Bridges said his National policy to reduce class size was not at odds with Hekia Parata's rejection of a similar policy at the 2014 election, because at that time the Government did not have the money to play with.
"When you haven't got a lot of dollars, I think you're right to focus on the quality. But we've got more choices today and we know that teacher numbers also matter."
The National leader said you "had to do both" when it came to investing in both teacher training, but also volume of teachers to reduce class sizes.
"Look I'll tell you, and this is all anecdotal, but my Mum's a teacher, my brother's a teacher, my sister's a teacher, and they believe it, right," Mr Bridges said.
"They say it will make a real difference in terms of the quality of what they do, but also the quality of what the kids do. I believe it, I'm putting a stake in the ground and we're going to deliver it."
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