Source: Radio New Zealand
Education Minister Erica Stanford RNZ / Nick Monro
Erica Stanford is being accused of using government resources to distribute party political videos, but her office says it was simply “human error”.
On Tuesday morning, the Education Minister emailed school principals about the government’s new SMART assessment tool from her ministerial account.
“From today, SMART is available for schools and kura to prepare for the first assessment window,” the email read.
“I’m sharing this email for you to pass on to your teachers, along with the short video below which shows how SMART will support teaching and learning in practice.”
The email included an explanation of the tool, as well as a link to a video she said “focuses on what SMART will mean in the classroom, and how it can support teaching and learning.”
The video, which has since been removed, was uploaded to the NZ National Party YouTube page.
RNZ has seen comments by education staff in response to the email and video, expressing disappointment and criticising the use of a party platform to distribute information about a Ministry initiative.
Another response from a principal directly to the Minister indicated they would not be sharing the video due to it being hosted by the @NZNats page and requested that in future materials be shared through the appropriate channels.
Labour’s education spokesperson Ginny Andersen told RNZ it was “completely inappropriate” for a Minister to use Ministry of Education contact lists and government resources to distribute National Party videos.
“Erica Stanford should know better than this by now.”
A spokesperson for Stanford said the video was posted in “human error” and had been taken down.
Her office planned to send a new email on Wednesday with the correct link.
In response to Labour’s criticism, the spokesperson said: “This was a ministerial video for teachers that was simply uploaded to the wrong channel and has been rectified.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
