Urgent Debates Declined — Programme for International Student Assessments—Results 2015

I have received a letter from Chris Hipkins seeking to debate under Standing Order 389 the release of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 results on the performance of school students in reading, maths, and science. The release of the results is a particular case of recent occurrence. As an OECD study, there is no ministerial responsibility for the data release, but the data deals with matters involving ministerial responsibility.

Educational achievement is of fundamental importance and is a matter about which the public needs confidence. An urgent debate on the report on the 2012 PISA data was held in 2013. In that instance the declines in the performance across reading, maths, and science were larger. I note that the 2015 results reflect relatively small declines in performance when compared with the 2012 data. Given the small movement in the results and the holding of a general debate today, I do not consider the matter important enough to warrant the immediate attention of the House by way of urgent debate. The application is therefore declined.