Not that the last is all that much better: try telling a certain semi-literate late middle-aged civic administrator the correct spelling of “Whanganui” and watch the sparks fly…

And yet you knew exactly who sk and sprout were referring to, eh Swampy?

Slow clap for you.

The truth about this policy is that it is a storm in a teacup that has been shamefully hijacked for political ends by the teachers unions. It is a piffling amount of money being expended in a very minor change that will not have the negative impact that is being hyped up by the Labour party’s union friends the way it has. National is not spending hundreds of millions in social engineering the way Labour does (think about much bigger Clark policies like the useless TEC) and the result is not going to be anything like as far reaching as all the scaremongering makes out.

The schools have to have some kinds of assessments, the PAT tests and the like are all well developed and supported in the educational community so the basic principles are sound. I expect the standards will be based on the PAT and the other standardised assessments like STAR etc which schools already use to determine their performance in house. They report those results to their boards, if they are a good school.

Your union comments are spot on, they all campaigned for Labour and told their members who to vote for.

I work in the education system and it is plain, this is just another front for union whingers to attack the National government. They all seem to have forgotten they are public servants. Buutveld boycotting the launch makes him look like a politician, would he be so brave if he were still leading a school.

You see the NCLB was not a Bush push at all costs, it attracted widespread bipartisan support in the political era it was created in. It was taken through the legislative process by no lesser a leftie than Ted Kennedy. The number of votes in favour in both Houses was around 90%. It is rare to find that kind of unanimity in NZ for any kind of major policy like that.

So if this is our version then it can’t be so bad as all the naysayers here make out. Professor Hattie, well he has said that it could be an incredible opportunity if it works out.

The government has spent nearly a year talking to the teachers unions about this policy, even if Tolley has stuffed it up a bit, they have talked.

I had a read, and this whole scenario brings to mind a scene from Torchwood where the ministers are discussing what children to give to the invaders. They use the excuse “If we can’t identify the worst kids, the ones that will go on to cost the state, the ones that will turn to crime, then what on earth are school league tables for?”

When you’ve got teachers being advised to give A’s to students that write such “the san and the nite rise n the eaf” it’s no wonder that this next generation are going to be dumber than the last when it comes to literacy.

Then there’s this photo which quite clearly tells us just where John Key thinks the poorly performing kids belong.