New Labour policy shocks minister: Party wants to cancel primary school testing

Tuesday, 16 June 2026

Ginny Andersen appeared to confirm Labour would cancel mandated testing for primary students at an Auckland Primary Principals' Association event last week.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said 221,000 children are using the Smart Tool assessment system this year across New Zealand schools.

The Smart Tool assesses reading, writing and maths for students in years three to eight through quiz-like multi-choice questions.

Ginny Andersen appeared to subtly confirm a major Labour Party education policy at a conference last week, but her party says the policy had already been announced — it’s just almost no one had seen the announcement.

While speaking as part of a political panel beside education ministers Erica Stanford and David Seymour, Andersen said she would cancel “mandated testing” for primary-aged students.

The MPs were at an Auckland Primary Principals’ Association event last week, when Andersen promised to put an end to the new “Smart Tool” if Labour took power after the election. That new tool coordinated twice-yearly testing for students in years three to eight.

Her promise surprised Stanford, the education minister who was sitting on stage beside Andersen. Stanford announced the roll out of the “Smart Tool” just a few months ago, describing it as a “low-stakes, light-touch” assessment tool.

Stanford told Stuff the tool was working well, with 221,000 children using the tool this year.

“Parents will receive that information in their next report card. Labour wants to take that away from parents,” she said, after the event.

She added, “Labour’s plan to scrap twice-yearly progress checks in reading, writing and maths shows they are out of touch with parents. Parents do not want less information about how their children are doing. They want more.”

Andersen told the crowd of principals: “If I was the minister, I would not have mandated testing because I think it is important teachers are working within their schools to understand what works for your communities and your parents. And you deserve to have that autonomy.”

She said she was “worried about the Smart Tool”.

Asked to confirm if that was a solid Labour Party policy going into the election, a party spokesperson replied with a simple response, “yes”.

That education policy isn’t listed by Labour as one of its election campaign promises and, as far as Stuff can see, the party hadn’t issued any formal statement announcing the policy.

But the spokesperson did direct Stuff towards Andersen’s private Substack account.

On Substack, where Andersen has accumulated 115 subscribers, she made a similar comment a few months ago.

In a newsletter posted on that social media site, Andersen wrote: “We need to end the obsession with testing.”

But she included a caveat with that statement, which meant it wasn’t clear that Labour was promising to get rid of mandatory testing for primary school students.

She said, “Parents deserve clear, regular updates on how their child is progressing at school, but not at the expense of real learning.

“Labour will ensure parents get straightforward, consistent reporting on their child’s progress.”

The newsletter did not include a clear commitment to put an end to the just-launched Smart Tool.

What is the Smart Tool?

Launched this year, the Ministry of Education described the Smart assessment as “a learning check-in”. “It is not a high-stakes test,” the ministry said.

The tool was launched this year in some schools, with the Government planning to have it working in all primary schools later.

It assessed reading, writing and maths for students in years three to 10.

Using a quiz-like website, it asked students multi-choice questions or for short written answers.

An example assessment, published online by the ministry, included just 15 questions.