Labour leader Andrew Little and education spokesman Chris Hipkins deliver the party's education manifesto ahead of the 2017 election.

More upheaval for students will come under a Labour-led government with plans to axe the way children are currently assessed in schools.

The national standards system used to test pupils in primary school would be replaced with a new model under Labour, and it would do a complete review of assessment load on both students and teachers at NCEA level.

Labour rolled out its education manifesto on Friday ahead of the September election, although much of it had already been announced or signalled in the last year.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Labour leader Andrew Little and education spokesman Chris Hipkins say improving the quality of teaching is the most important part of the manifesto.

The policy will see an extra $4 billion invested over four years,although $400 million is yet to be allocated and would likely be used on future announcements.

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* Labour pledges extra $193m for early childhood

* Every student to get 'personalised career plan'

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National standards, which test year 1 to 8 pupils on reading, writing and maths, were introduced in 2010 and have undergone a long bedding-in process as teachers, students and parents have struggled to make sense of how the standards work. NCEA was phased in to secondary schools between 2002 and 2004.

Christel Yardley Labour's education spokesman Chris Hipkins has set out education policy targeting toddlers right through to adult learners in night-classes.

The guts of the manifesto is around reducing the barriers to free education, quality teaching, public education and putting students at the centre of learning.

Labour's education spokesman Chris Hipkins said the "under-investment" under National could no longer be ignored.

"Nor the rapidly changing expectations our youngest learners are facing."

Hagen Hopkins Labour leader Andrew Little says his party has always been committed to a "world-class free education system that's accessible to everyone''.

Hipkins said the issue currently with national standards is that they're not "national or standard".

"They've basically become a compliance, form-filling exercise, that's resulted in an enormous increase in teacher workload without any real increase in student achievement, so we think we can ease that."

He said a new model to replace national standards would be a return to "formative testing" of the curriculum.

"The very best thing that parents can do if they want to know how their kids are doing is have a conversation with their kids' teachers."

Some other initiatives detailed in the manifesto include re-building out-dated and worn-out school building, so that every school has modern classrooms by 2030, at a cost of $1.77b.

The next big ticket item, which had previously been announced, is introducing three years of free post-school education or training at a cost of $942m over four years.

Labour's three free years policy would apply to university students, apprenticeships or training or retraining in NZQA approved courses.

The plan will be introduced in phases, with one year's education available from 2019, two years from 2022 and three years from 2025 - rising to a cost of $1.2b at full implementation.

Labour had already announced on Friday an end to voluntary donations for the majority of parents across the country.

Those schools who take up the scheme to stop asking parents for donations would receive an extra $150 per student.

Labour anticipates parents of more than 450,000 students - more than likely from lower decile schools - would no longer be asked for a donation, bringing the total cost of the policy to an estimated $70m a year.

Also previously announced was a promise of an extra $193m over three years for early childhood education (ECE).

This would increase funding for centres that employ 100 per cent qualified and registered teachers, and Labour would also require all ECE centres to employ at least 80 per cent qualified teachers by the end of its first term in government.

National's campaign chair, Steven Joyce, has written off the Opposition's manifesto as "stale".

"Already this week they have broken out such hardy triennials as R&D tax credits, their insulation scheme, and their early re-start to contributions to the Super Fund.



"And then today they have released an education policy that is almost in every sense identical to their 2014 one," Joyce said.

Of the nine headline initiatives, he said only one is different to 2014, and "that was announced eighteen months ago".

Other initiatives detailed in Labour's manifesto include:

- an initial $40m over four years to tackle teacher supply issues

- a four year investment of $107m to ensure all students have access to mobile digital devices

- scrapping the use of Public Private Partnerships for the build and re-build of schools

- repealing the legislation allowing for charter schools

- reviewing the funding system for integrated schools

Other policies already announced by Labour, which are part of the overall package, include investigating wiping some or all student loans for graduates who take public service or critical skill shortage jobs, particularly in teaching and nursing, and a "personalised career plan" for all students.

The idea of bonding graduates to jobs isn't new for Labour but incentivising students to head to job shortage areas in exchange for student loans is.

In terms of the career plan, Labour's policy will mean every school will have highly trained, skilled careers advice staff.