While the Otago Primary Principals Association has no plans to boycott the Government's National Standards initiative at this point, its members have not yet ruled out the measure of action in the future.
Education Minister Anne Tolley threatened to sack primary school boards which allowed their teachers to boycott the system after a meeting of 80 Northland principals last week unanimously agreed not to implement the standards until their effect was better known.
A forum held in Wellington last month with the New Zealand Educational Institute, principals, teachers, school trustees, educationists, researchers and academics suggested the standards be trialled before being fully adopted.
However, Mrs Tolley said there would be no trial period and schools would have to measure pupils against benchmarks for reading, writing and maths and report to parents from next February.
Otago Primary Principals Association president Jenny Clarke said if the minister was unmoved by the sector's concerns, Otago principals might also consider boycotting the initiative.
She said national standards were being implemented more rapidly than many people in the education sector thought was prudent, and most were yet to be convinced the standards would achieve all that Mrs Tolley claimed or hoped.
"To dismiss boards of trustees seems misguided and foolhardy in the light of the thousands of hours that they contribute to the positive governance of schools on behalf of the Government for little remuneration.
"I encourage the minister to listen to the underlying message motivating the potential boycott, and find a way to work constructively with the sector.
"If the minister is so confident that the implementation of the national standards will achieve the goals defined by the Government, it has everything to gain from a well structured trial."
Schools were fully committed to implementing the highly valued revised curriculum, but their attention was being distracted by national standards - something they were not convinced would make a difference to the lowest-achieving children, Mrs Clarke said.
