Even Catherine Isaac thinks Parata has no idea
When Catherine Isaac (wife of Roger Kerr (deceased) of the former Business Round-table and ACT party stalwart) is at odds with Parata, something must be amiss.
Social issues
education
Hekia has gone rogue
Hekia Parata has announced that student achievement and not need caused by poverty will be a central part of any future funding system.
Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions
Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions or has the World Finally Gone madder?
A schools league table that we need
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
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
…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
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.
Well he would wouldn’t he
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?
What exactly does a charter school have to do in order to be held accountable?
Failing Charter School punished by increase in funding
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
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
The government has awarded itself a nice report card. Let’s take a closer look.
School lunches – Key vs data
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!
A charter school banks an “operating surplus” of $2.4 million, while state schools remain chronically underfunded.
Anti-union rant in The Herald
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
Further evidence that “national standards” are an omnishambles.
Schools under pressure
Schools are not adequately funded for the job we ask them to do.
Students speak on loan cap
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
Steven Joyce has today announced his latest appointments to TEI. These are important because after changes to the Education Act 1989 in 2009 […]
The education horse race
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
The only person to receive 100% in the world for her work was a young kiwi with only two years background. Read more […]
‘Ditch the [misleading] rhetoric’
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
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
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
I’m sure it’s true, but…
Noam Chomsky on Student debt
Have Student loans made current University Students less radical?
Starving the universities
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
David Farrar continues the Dirty Politics strategy of trying to intimidate critics of the government into silence.
Local Bodies: Whale Oil and Tolley Attacked Principals and Myself
The stench of National’s dirty politics is reeking like decayed blubber. Today it appears that Anne Tolley appears to have used Cameron Slater to attack critics of their flawed education policies. The question is how much taxpayers funds did the ministers use on their vindictive support for the countries most despicable ‘blogger’?
TolleyOil?
NetworkOnNet posts about the Ministry of Education under Tolley bullying good principals though WhaleOil. And also in Education news: this week all 4-7 year olds will be eligible for a free hot school lunch… in the UK.