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.
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!
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”?
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 statementTo be a world leader in contemporary applied learning and an agent of positive economic and social change.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, June 3rd, 2015 - 67 comments
Further evidence that “national standards” are an omnishambles.
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.
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.
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, […]
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.
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…
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.
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
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 5:42 pm, October 30th, 2014 - 15 comments
I’m sure it’s true, but…
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 10th, 2014 - 61 comments
Have Student loans made current University Students less radical?
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?
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.
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