University of Otago Educational Assessment Research Unit emeritus director Lester Flockton has echoed the concerns of thousands of teachers and principals in New Zealand who want the Government to rethink its proposal to establish national standards in primary and intermediate schools next year.
Mr Flockton said he had been monitoring New Zealand's education standards with the National Education Monitoring Project for the past 15 years and believed Education Minister Anne Tolley's claim that 20% of New Zealand primary and intermediate-aged children were underachieving was distorted.
"Based on my research, only about 10% of New Zealand kids are struggling.
The large majority of children in New Zealand are among the top-achieving pupils around the world.
"My question is: Why do we have to have a system which is made to assess every child in the country, twice a year, for every year of their primary education, when in fact our major concern is the 10%-15% who are not achieving?"
The Government would be wiser and better informed to use resources that are targeted to those students in need."
He said the Government had claimed national standards would also help teachers identify which children are struggling at school.
However, he said any teacher "worth their salt" should know which children were struggling.
"Almost anyone could walk in off the street and work out which children are struggling with literacy and numeracy.
You don't need national standards to tell you that."
While the Government believed national standards would give parents clearer information about their child's performance and achievement at school, Mr Flockton said there was no proof parents were not already getting clear information.
"There is no proof that parents don't understand the information.
It's all convenient anecdotal information cobbled together by the minister for the purpose of pushing the national standards."
Mr Flockton said based on his 35 years of experience as a teacher, principal, inspector of schools, Ministry of Education official, researcher, university lecturer and his work on many national curriculum committees, he has found one of the strongest influences over a child's achievement was the quality of support they received in the home.
"In New Zealand, we have a high proportion of parents who struggle to make ends meet. And like it or not, that is one of the disparities linked to child achievement."
He believed the Government would be better to attend to the social conditions of society.
"I'm not opposed to standards in New Zealand primary schools. But I don't think one set of standards are going to work for every child - it's not realistic."
Mrs Tolley said the standards were expected to reduce the number of pupils entering secondary school with literacy and numeracy needs and close the gap between the high achievers and those who were struggling.
"National standards aims to lift achievement levels for all students."
Parents wanted to know, in clear information, "the good, the bad and the ugly" about their child's progress and not all schools were providing them with this, she said.
"We have strong support from parents who want to know how their child is doing at school and how they can help."