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Speaker 1: Now I've said it before, I'm going to say it again.

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Speaker 1: Erica Stanford is this government's MVP most Valuable player for

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Speaker 1: once again taking an inexplicably stupid thing that we were

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Speaker 1: doing in schools, ditching at and going back to common sense. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is something very close to my heart at the moment,

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Speaker 1: because I have to make a decision in kinda roughly

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Speaker 1: the next six months or so about which school we

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Speaker 1: send our son to. But it really isn't a decision

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Speaker 1: at all, because it's going to be the one school

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Speaker 1: in the area that has single classes instead of open

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Speaker 1: plan modern learning spaces. It is the school that his

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Speaker 1: best friend from KINDI is going to. It is also

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Speaker 1: the school that another parent I know has just sent

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Speaker 1: their child to. And all of us are doing it

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Speaker 1: for exactly the same reason, which is we want to

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Speaker 1: avoid those open planned learning spaces because we know, like

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Speaker 1: most parents do. I would say that if you stick

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Speaker 1: one hundred kids in a big room and tell them

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Speaker 1: to pay attention to the teacher in front of them,

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Speaker 1: they can't. They get distracted by the loud noises coming

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Speaker 1: from the other kids over there, or the TV over there,

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Speaker 1: or what the teacher is saying over there, or why

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Speaker 1: someone's laughing over there. There's just a hundred distractions all

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Speaker 1: the time. Why the Ministry of Education forced this on

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Speaker 1: schools will probably baffle me for the rest of my

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Speaker 1: life because there's no logic to it. No one who

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Speaker 1: has kids, will spends time with kids, can really believe

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Speaker 1: that kids can concentrate and learn when there are one

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Speaker 1: hundred voices chirping around them. I'm which idiot came up

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Speaker 1: with this. I'd actually love to know. Just to settle me,

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you what the legacy of this government could

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Speaker 1: well be that it finally turns around. Are up to

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Speaker 1: now decades long decline in education stats with that ban

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Speaker 1: on phones in schools, with the hour a day of reading,

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Speaker 1: writing and maths, with the expectation that kids must pass

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Speaker 1: existing standards, and actually gives our kids a chance to

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Speaker 1: learn as well as other kids in any other developed

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Speaker 1: country like we used to. And if that happens, then

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Speaker 1: Erica Stanford, given how crucial education is to a country success,

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Speaker 1: Erica Stanford, will remain, as I see her, the MVP

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Speaker 1: of this government, if not of the decade, if not

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Speaker 1: of her generation. For more from the mic, asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks that'd be from six am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio