A clear majority of New Zealanders back a return to standardised assessments in primary schools, new results from 1News Vote Compass suggest.
The results also show that 50% of respondents either strongly or somewhat support free school lunches in all state schools — with around 32% opposed.
Meanwhile, a majority of respondents also support more funding for universities.
As part of Vote Compass, around 100,000 people have been queried for their views on policy and whether they support the parties' political promises on education.
Free school lunches, more funding for universities and standardised testing — Kiwis were asked about their views on education in TVNZ's Vote Compass. (Source: 1News)
Standardised assessments in schools
National wants to introduce "standardised, robust assessment" in maths, reading, and writing every six months for students in Years 3-8 — beginning for kids aged seven.
Primary and intermediate school children would be assessed twice a year and must be taught at least an hour of each of the three curriculum subjects every day.
National's education spokesperson joins Q+A to discuss her party's plans to reform the primary school curriculum if elected this year. (Source: 1News)
Party leader Christopher Luxon has also promised to rewrite the curriculum to make it clearer what teachers must teach students.
The plan has been coldly received by teachers' unions, which have accused the party of a return to John Key-era National Standards — which had been ditched by the Labour Government.
Luxon's likely coalition partner, ACT, has said it will push the next government to adopt a standardised testing system.
Kiwis who responded to Vote Compass appeared to warm to a return to standardised assessments. Users were asked: "New Zealand should reintroduce standardised assessments to measure student performance in primary schools."
Sixty-one per cent, a clear majority, either somewhat supported or strongly supported the proposition — broken down as 34% somewhat agree and 27% strongly agree.
Twenty per cent either strongly or somewhat disagreed, while 16% were neutral, and 3% of respondents said they didn't know.
Notably, the strongest support for standardised assessments came from those aged over 65, where the policy appeared to garner overwhelming support.
For those over 65, around 40% strongly agreed with the policy and 33% somewhat agreed. Only 15% disagreed, 11% were neutral, and 1% said they didn't know.
Free school lunches for all
The Labour Government introduced free school lunches in 2019, but it's currently only targeted at schools with students facing the greatest socio-economic barriers.
Chris Hipkins said it would cost about $650 million to continue the programme at about 1000 schools. (Source: 1News)
National has backed the programme in its current form, but its coalition partner ACT has decried it "wasteful" spending. Vote Compass users were asked for their position on whether "the government should provide free lunches to students in all state schools".
In response, 50% of users either somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement, 32% either somewhat or strongly disagreed, 18% were neutral, and 1% didn't know.
Respondents in Māori electorates were far more likely to suggest they supported the proposition with 81% either strongly or somewhat supporting the suggestion. Only 9% in the demographic disagreed and 11% said they were neutral.
The Greens have called for universal free school lunches, funded by a wealth tax the party wants to introduce. The party has suggested such a policy would cost $544 million over the next three years if it's implemented.
More money for universities
Vote Compass users were also queried about whether they believed universities should get more funding from the government: "How much government funding should there be for universities in New Zealand?"
A funding crisis in the tertiary sector could see Victoria University's theatre programme disestablished. (Source: Sunday)
Fifty-three per cent supported more government funding than the sector receives today, while 34 per cent supported about the same, and only 9% wanted less funding.
Earlier this year, tertiary institutions recieved a temporary $128 million funding boost from the Government, as declining enrolment, higher costs, and fewer international students took a bite into revenue.
Industry-wide pressure on funding has seen hundreds of job losses proposed across the country, including at AUT, Otago, and Victoria Universities — with some courses also on the cutting block.
What is Vote Compass?
By using Vote Compass, New Zealanders can find out which political parties they are with on the key issues facing the country
You can choose to agree or disagree with 30 statements about issues like health, education, the environment, and tax. Vote Compass will then analyse your answers with the policies of different parties and show you how similar they are to your own views.
Where do you sit? Find out here at: 1News.co.nz/VoteCompass
University of Auckland associate professor Jennifer Lees-Marshment said the results from the tool also serve as a way to gauge the public's insights on hot topics, as they are tabulated by researchers every few days.
Lees-Marshment said the results on key issues reported from Vote Compass would help "elevate" the voice of the public for how politicians and the media discussed the election.
The online tool launched today helps put the focus on policies, not just personalities. (Source: 1News)
Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, Vote Compass is a civic engagement application offered in New Zealand exclusively by 1News/TVNZ. The findings are based on 99,758 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from September 10, 2023 to September 19, 2023.
Unlike online opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not pre-selected. Similar to opinion polls, however, the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weighted in order to approximate a representative sample. The Vote Compass sample data have been weighted by gender, age, education, income, region, Māori ancestry, and partisanship to ensure the overall composition reflects that of the actual population of New Zealand according to census data and other population estimates.
SHARE ME