Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, August 30th, 2010 - 66 comments
Not content with wrecking primary school education, Anne Tolley has bought herself an unnecessary fight with secondary teachers.
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, August 27th, 2010 - 12 comments
At what point, I wonder, will National figure out that they’re in a hole over “national standards” and finally stop digging? At what point, I wonder, will National stop lying to us that the parents of insert region here are supportive of national standards?
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, August 23rd, 2010 - 28 comments
National Standards have been slated by all of the education and assessment experts in New Zealand as being fundamentally flawed. Anne Tolley’s recent admission that she has failed to find a way to ensure that League Tables (the most educationally damaging aspect of the National Standards policy) will be avoided is the final straw for principals around the country.
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, July 9th, 2010 - 25 comments
Anne Tolley is on record. She told the Principals gathered at their annual conference that rather than run to the media that they need to talk to her directly.
Lets see some of those who have voiced their opposition to Nationals Standards so far…..
Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, July 8th, 2010 - 15 comments
God knows what the National Standards are designed to do – it can’t be to lift achievement. Even the Minister says that is not the case. It can’t be to identify those behind – schools already do that. Anyway there is no money or extra resources to ‘fix’ them. Maybe there is a bigger plan …
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, July 3rd, 2010 - 57 comments
The Minister of Education Anne Tolley, and the Government, is facing a fair amount of (growing) opposition to the implementation of her National Standards. Her message was essentially that schools need to get on with the job of putting the Standards in place and not to publicly criticize the policy. Unfortunately, the Minister herself is responsible for a fair degree of the criticism.
Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, July 3rd, 2010 - 13 comments
Tolley told principals they should stop talking to the media about national standards. Their criticisms are valid. She would rather silence the critics than fix the problems. A wise authority figure power talks softly and carries a big stick. An idiot with an ego problem yells loudly while carrying no stick. Threatening 500 pillars of local communities when you’ve got no power over them. That’s just dumb.
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, June 30th, 2010 - 37 comments
Anne Tolley can’t stand to hear any criticism of National Standards, and she doesn’t want you to hear it either. She has had a critical Parliamentary Library research paper removed from the Parliamentary website. You can read it here.
Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, June 26th, 2010 - 31 comments
John Key and the Nats are an anti-education government. Everywhere you look education is under attack. The Nats seem incapable of grasping the basic facts – trained, skilled committed teachers are the best way of creating good educational outcomes, and good educational outcomes are the best way of lifting society and the economy.
Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, June 25th, 2010 - 59 comments
Just a few days ago I wrote about schools in Dunedin and Invercargill refusing to participate in National’s flawed, damaging “national standards” process. The boycott is spreading, with the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association refusing to participate in training, and warning of “further action”.
Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 21st, 2010 - 9 comments
Tony Ryall, like Anne Tolley, is facing a big fight over wages. The health budget is chock-full of cuts as it is and Ryall says there simply isn’t any money to give doctors pay rises as they and other workers face nearly 6% inflation next year. The government can find billions for tax cuts for the rich but not to pay doctors and teachers. Priorities.
Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, June 19th, 2010 - 12 comments
Several schools have spoken out against the imposition of national standards, and three have gone so far as to completely refuse to cooperate. This creates a dilemma for the Nats. How will they respond? Not, I hope, by following one moronic suggestion to cut funding to schools
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, June 15th, 2010 - 37 comments
I really like my children’s school – I think they work hard to keep those young minds engaged and bodies active. I know it’s a job that is pretty demanding, and hugely important. So when I hear that three-quarters of teachers are feeling unprepared and rushed as they work to implement National’s new national standards (according to a NZEI survey) I start to feel apprehensive.
Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, June 1st, 2010 - 19 comments
You’ve got to hand it to John Key. He’s so good at distraction he could be a rodeo clown. Yesterday, a classic case in point. Asked about his government’s cuts to early childhood education, Key talked about getting the cruelest cut instead. The journos were so surprised they forgot their questions. Mission accomplished. But we can still examine what the Nats are cutting.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 pm, April 28th, 2010 - 19 comments
The Nats are getting ready to cut 20 Hours Free Early Childhood Education, after having promised during the election campaign not only to keep it but extend it. The Nats don’t have to lie. If they want to break their promises they should just say ‘we just wanted to get elected, so we said what you wanted to hear. We’re going to break our promises and cut ECE’.
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, April 26th, 2010 - 31 comments
Comment from an international expert reported in The Herald today reminded me that National Standards aren’t the only ideologically driven folly that Tolley is forcing down the throats of schools. She’s also doing her bit to contribute to a major health problem…
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, March 31st, 2010 - 7 comments
The Key Government is constantly promising us great results and actually do nothing that improves things for New Zealanders. English, Bennett, Brownlee, and Tolley are prime examples of this MO. While they promise great things and fail to deliver unemployment is rising, wages are falling, crime is up, and the government has no plan to move us forward.
Written By: - Date published: 6:18 am, March 22nd, 2010 - 27 comments
Anne Tolley has promised that national standards have been introduced so that “every single child could read, write, and do maths when they left school”.
The depths of arrogance and ignorance in that claim leave me at a loss for words…
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, March 20th, 2010 - 40 comments
Education Minister Anne Tolley has made an extraordinary promise: “New Zealand elected a Government that promised to introduce national standards so that every single child could read, write, and do maths when they left school. That is what the country voted for.” We would all love to see National deliver, but they can’t, and they know that they can’t. It’s an empty promise.
Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, March 18th, 2010 - 27 comments
Which minister will be next to go? Rodney Hide or Anne Tolley? If competence was a condition of keeping their job, both would be long gone. But doing a good minister has never been a job requirement in John Key’s government. It comes down to which of them makes a spectacular mistake so serious that …
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, March 16th, 2010 - 14 comments
Anne Tolley put out an odd media statement on Friday. She reckons Trevor Mallard, opposition spokesperson for Education, dominated two public meetings in Auckland on her Government’s unpopular national standards policy. Which begs the question, was she actually all there at either meeting?
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, March 13th, 2010 - 30 comments
We keep hearing, from the Key government, statements about education that make no logical or factual sense at all. Here are two examples. Help me choose — which is the stupider statement, and why?
Written By: - Date published: 11:54 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 55 comments
Let’s face facts. Anne Tolley is a dangerous minister. She is undermining the education system at every turn and the damage will last lifetime. But is National doing the responsible thing and removing her from the portfolio? No. In fact, a guest poster reports they’re so desperate to help her out that they’ve got plants in her audiences to ask patsy questions.
Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, March 11th, 2010 - 20 comments
Have a listen to Education Minister Anne Tolley on Morning Report today
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the $25 million cut to the education budget.It really was a shocker, even for her.
Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, March 11th, 2010 - 21 comments
While other countries have used their strong public sectors to steady the private sector and keep unemployment down during the economic downturn, our government is compounding unemployment by cutting the public sector, throwing people out of jobs and feeding worker insecurity.
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, March 10th, 2010 - 24 comments
“Tolley finds ally in school mum” screams the headline of Audrey Young’s piece today.
When National runs a bus tour the Herald is desperate in its attempts to drum up support, when it’s Labour all they want to talk about is how much the bus is costing the taxpayer.
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, March 5th, 2010 - 32 comments
It’s pretty rare that I agree with John Key but he got it right when he voiced concern that journalists are attacking MPs for legitimately using their budgets to do their jobs. Do we really want to force parties to rely on private funding for communicating their positions? That makes politics a rich man’s game. There are plenty of actual rip-offs and rorts for the media to root out.
Written By: - Date published: 7:37 am, March 5th, 2010 - 11 comments
All available evidence and expert opinion suggests that National Standards, as the government intends to introduce them in our primary schools, won’t work. They may even do damage. Will Key and Tolley ever take heed of the evidence, or is this just a blind ideological crusade? Bring on Diane Ravitch…
Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, March 2nd, 2010 - 22 comments
A guest contributor reports that if you want your chance to quiz Anne Tolley and you live in West Auckland your chance is on Thursday but it sounds like the Nats would rather you didn’t come. Another guest contributor pans Tolley’s meeting last night.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, February 24th, 2010 - 26 comments
Success for Opposition frontbenchers largely consists of embarrassing their opposite number by forcing them to answer questions they would rather not. Labour showed both how to do that and how not to do it in the House yesterday.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, February 23rd, 2010 - 2 comments
The Post Primary Teachers’ Association have just launched a YouTube video protesting National’s hugely unpopular cuts to night classes.
Click through to check it out.
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