New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) President Angela Roberts hopes that the Minister of Education is not unwilling to learn the lessons of past education disasters.

Minister unwilling to learn

Maybe it is an occupational hazard, but I do believe that mistakes often provide golden opportunities to learn valuable lessons.  As I reflect on the recommendations in the Report of the Ministerial Inquiry into the Novopay Project I look for the lessons, for us and for cabinet..

Intelligently interrogating challenging advice is the right thing to do

A lesson for us, the sector and the New Zealand public is that advice the minister of education bases policy and legislation on can be misleading or just plain bad.

This is not a new lesson; just consider the class size debacle, the destructive professional learning and development reforms and the championing of charter schools.

This means we are right to intelligently interrogate and challenge advice being given to this government every step of the way — because the minister and her cabinet colleagues have made it clear they do not believe it is their job to do so.

Public education needs a champion

Another lesson is the exposure of the true value in which public education is held by this government.