The Education Minister says Labour's plan to ditch the mandated hour of reading, writing and maths is just 'ridiculous'.

Chris Hipkins revealed he'd leave it up to the schools to decide - at last night's TVNZ leaders debate. 

But Erica Stanford says the policy was based on a recommendation in the 2021 Royal Society Maths Report that Hipkins commissioned himself.

She says it's not political or ideological, it's what the experts are saying. 

"We're finally seeing a turnaround in results, and he wants to go back to - well, we'll just get rid of our standards and what the experts are saying. What a disaster."

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