education

Categories under education

A schools league table that we need

Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, September 4th, 2015 - 15 comments

The Nats have created the (spurious) data for school “league tables” so that parents can be fully informed and make choices, so they tell us. But it seems that parents don’t deserve to be fully informed about the dangerous physical health of schools. That would be just too inconvenient.

Charter $chools

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, August 22nd, 2015 - 20 comments

Today’s Herald has an excellent piece on charter schools – School cash flows to owners’ pockets. What a surprise!

Sunshine Coast holiday a life changing experience for our Children

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, August 11th, 2015 - 139 comments

…is swimming all day in a pool at the luxurious Denarau suite of high class hotels a learning experience? Spending days in water parks in Queensland life expanding? Is this sufficient to justify thumbing your nose at our education system, its principles (and principals) and making teachers re-teach these children to catch them up? What happened to the notion of “one law for all”?

 

250 to 300 Job Losses at Unitec in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, August 8th, 2015 - 84 comments

Under Unitec’s new vision students will be known as Customers. Student services will be outsourced (overseas)

Aspiration statement
To be a world leader in contemporary applied learning and an agent of positive economic and social change
.

Well he would wouldn’t he

Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, August 3rd, 2015 - 52 comments

Key denies claims that he said Maori language month would be boring. Whatever the phrasing it’s clear that he was insensitive and a 16-year-old girl has been upset. Key should just do the decent thing and apologise.

What’s a charter school gotta do?

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, July 30th, 2015 - 7 comments

What exactly does a charter school have to do in order to be held accountable?

Failing Charter School punished by increase in funding

Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, July 24th, 2015 - 33 comments

The Friday afternoon bad news dump is on with news that Education Minister was recommended to close a poorly performing charter school.  She has elected not to do so and to instead give the school extra money.

More charter school fiascos

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, July 22nd, 2015 - 15 comments

Charter schools continue to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Right-wingers continue to back them for all the wrong reasons.

Deconstructing the government’s report card

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, July 7th, 2015 - 11 comments

The government has awarded itself a nice report card. Let’s take a closer look.

School lunches – Key vs data

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 am, July 6th, 2015 - 29 comments

Key claimed that the number of hungry kids in schools was limited to “the odd one or two”. Everyone knew it was nonsense. Now a survey by the New Zealand Principals’ Federation indicates the true extent of the problem.

It’s great to be a charter school!

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, July 2nd, 2015 - 48 comments

A charter school banks an “operating surplus” of $2.4 million, while state schools remain chronically underfunded.

Anti-union rant in The Herald

Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, June 8th, 2015 - 72 comments

An anonymous editorial in The Herald this morning really is atrocious. Apparently the limited uptake one of the Nats’ pet education policies is all the fault of the unions.

National standards aren’t

Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, June 3rd, 2015 - 67 comments

Further evidence that “national standards” are an omnishambles.

Schools under pressure

Written By: - Date published: 2:38 pm, May 31st, 2015 - 12 comments

Schools are not adequately funded for the job we ask them to do.

Students speak on loan cap

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, May 28th, 2015 - 46 comments

Students speak on the lifetime limit on eligibility for student loans. This particularly affects those committed to a long term course of study, such as medical students. They can’t get loans for their final years of study. It’s crazy.

New appointments to Tertiary Education Institutions Councils

Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, April 16th, 2015 - 23 comments

Steven Joyce has today announced his latest appointments to TEI. These are important because after changes to the Education Act 1989 in 2009 the Minister controls the appointment of half of the appointees of Councils. The Council appoints the other half. Think about the possible implications of Government influence. Manukau Institute of TechnologyMs Rachael Tuwhangai, […]

The education horse race

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, April 9th, 2015 - 15 comments

On the one hand the government are pushing for more and more NCEA passes to feed the league tables, and on the other they are acknowledging that those passes are no longer enough to suggest success at Tertiary level and tightening criteria to exclude students. Mixed messages, perverse incentives, a giant shambles.

Second “Roast Busters” report released

Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, March 19th, 2015 - 120 comments

There are many failings outlined. Police were  found to have largely treated women and girls with respect and compassion but their investigations were not robust or thorough, inadequate follow-up enquiries…

Shame shame shame

Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, March 19th, 2015 - 206 comments

Last night in Parliament National voted down Harawira / Turei’s Feed the Kids Bill, David Shearer’s Food in Schools Bill, and Phil Twyford’s Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill.

The Second Climate Change Problem

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, March 12th, 2015 - 23 comments

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence

Charter schools mess – what a surprise

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, February 21st, 2015 - 193 comments

One of National’s first five charter schools is a failure, and applications for new charter schools have been cancelled. Who could have predicted such a mess? Just about everybody…

Novopay cost us $45 million

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, February 19th, 2015 - 102 comments

It was announced yesterday that Novopay has cost the country $45 million more than intended. The Ministry of Education has accepted some responsibility but in terms of ultimate responsibility the Ministers involved, English, Parata and Foss should be held to blame.

Revolutionary Spain, Revolutionary Syria, and the Bastards We Vote For.

Written By: - Date published: 3:36 pm, February 11th, 2015 - 63 comments

It seems that just as the 30’s offered the chance to turn dreams into reality, Syria is offering that chance up to ‘the left’ today. Suddenly, for me, the recent travel bans and the passport confiscation laws etc make sense since we are potentially looking at an international influx of non-nutters and non- psychopaths as happened during the Spanish Revolution of the 30s.

17 year old kiwi sits atop the world

Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, February 7th, 2015 - 15 comments

The only person to receive 100% in the world for her work was a young kiwi with only two years background. Read more here.      

‘Ditch the [misleading] rhetoric’

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, December 12th, 2014 - 16 comments

On RNZ this morning PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff criticised Bill English for his misleading rhetoric about rises in “average wages”.  NZ’s income and wealth gaps have increased in recent decades.  The lowest income remain low; the top earners get big salary increases.

Charter Schools: F

Written By: - Date published: 7:52 am, December 4th, 2014 - 45 comments

So despite the vast amount more funding (5x more per pupil) to charter schools, 1 of the 5 first, Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru, is failing abysmally.

The Government has previously said that all their problems were fixed, or being fixed – but they clearly aren’t.

Prove It

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 pm, December 3rd, 2014 - 28 comments

So John Key reckons the decile 1 & 2 principals he talks to say that hardly any kids at their school need lunch. Campbell Live & Kids Can seem to only find school principals who say that lots of kids need lunch. So maybe John Key can name these mythical decile 1 & 2 schools that are doing so well. And then when he gets shown up again, maybe National can move to support Hone’s Food in Schools Bill.

Lowly science

Written By: - Date published: 5:42 pm, October 30th, 2014 - 15 comments

I’m sure it’s true, but…

Noam Chomsky on Student debt

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 10th, 2014 - 61 comments

Have Student loans made current University Students less radical?

Starving the universities

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, October 6th, 2014 - 52 comments

NZ’s universities are falling down the world rankings. This should come as no surprise, because National have systematically cut funding to the tertiary sector. How stupid do you have to be to deliberately run down our universities?

Boots Theory: Creepy behaviour from David Farrar

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, September 27th, 2014 - 78 comments

David Farrar continues the Dirty Politics strategy of trying to intimidate critics of the government into silence.