Posted by: blogger
on Mar 12, 2010
Tagged in: Tertiary Education Commission , TEC , PPTA Blog , Night classes , Ministry of Education , education spending , education politics , budget , Anne Tolley , Adult education , ACE
By Observer
This government doesn’t seem to have the slightest commitment to the idea that employers should act in good faith or that the State Sector Act 1988 (s77A) requires schools to “operate a personnel policy that complies with the principles of being a good employer”.
When it announced its poorly thought-through decision to can ACE (night schools) funding within the 2010 year, it appears to have had no clue as to how schools were meant to pay redundancy costs except that they should use whatever spare ACE money they had. Even a quick risk analysis would have told them that schools would not have enough to pay if the employees had had a lengthy period of employment.
Posted by: Cynic
on Mar 10, 2010
Government funding cuts hit the Ministry of Education
First they shuffle the money out of PD into National Standards, and perhaps out of the Behaviour Action Plan/Special Education into Truancy action, now job losses.
Apparently this will mean the Ministry will be more efficient, and less bureaucratic
Possibly the same logic that says cuts to staffing in schools will allow schools more flexibility?
Posted by: Albatross
on Mar 3, 2010
It is interesting that MoE officials have turned to slogans in an effort to sell National Standards.
This is no doubt a response to the dearth of data supporting such a programme.
The current slogan is “The kids can’t wait” As with all good advertising, the sentence is never completed.
Posted by: Observer
on Feb 17, 2010
What’s the real story on this crazy report from the from the rogues gallery that calls itself the inter-party working group.
From the look of the report (available here http://www.act.org.nz) not a lot of working went on and almost zero thinking.
That wouldn’t normally matter because usually MPs on working parties can mitigate their ignorance by drawing on the full resources of the State to provide information.
In this case though, the Ministry of Education wasn’t asked to provide any information to the group – probably because it would have raised some awkward questions about the huge cost of setting up a school anywhere that a parent wants, the expense involved in creating an unqualified bureaucracy to mediate between schools and parents, the difficulties of simply closing a school when there is a whole cohort of students still in it, the cost and traffic problems created by transporting kids all across town and the cost and difficulty of developing a “weighted funding formula based on student need”.
Cost neutral? Hardly.
The report avoids words we all know and understand replacing them with politically correct econospeak. Schools become “providers” or occasionally “institutions”; students are “learners” or “clients”; assessment is “context value added measure” and teachers are “learning brokers”. That’s what we need in the New Zealand education system – more jargon.
Posted by: Winged Avenger
on Feb 17, 2010
A 2009 MOE report released under the OIA tells the minister that National Standards will “improve [MOE] ability to compare performance across primary and intermediate schools.” The ministry already uses “National Qualification statistics to monitor secondary schools performance.”
The report goes on to detail possible interventions for schools with low achievement. These range from voluntary school improvement initiatives, to statutory managers or even school closure. The ministry plans to expand its use of statutory interventions, rather than saving them as a last resort.
The report asks the minister to “direct the ministry to develop a coherent intervention framework for schools, for an environment where student achievement information will be used to decide which schools warrant intervention.”
Posted by: Winged Avenger
on Feb 11, 2010
"big sports fields and small class sizes"
This month a new private school opened in Whangarei. Quite a few kids are already enrolled, which begs the question: other than old-style uniforms and dodgy international exams, what does a private school have that a state school does not? The student quoted in the local paper knows: "big sports fields and small class sizes. That's an improvement coming from a class of 33. It means teachers can focus on smaller groups."
Well then. Smaller class size. A 12-year-old knows that it makes a positive difference to her learning. What makes it so hard for the government and other class-size deniers to understand her simple point? Fewer kids, more teacher time, more space to learn, more flexibility, less stretch on shared resources… win, win, win…
Oh, and hats off to Mesdames Roy and Tolley, for the funding boost to private schools that gives them what the state schools are not funded to have: Small classes. And, by the way, private schools have raised their fees (again) this year, on average by 3.5%. More public money plus higher fees, what’s not to like?
Posted by: blogger
on Feb 10, 2010
By Flying Pig
Last month PPTA was notified that the Quality Teaching Partnership Fund (QTPF) will be the latest casualty of cost-cutting at the Ministry of Education.
The QTPF is a fund that has supported the last two subject association forums by covering the cost of accommodation for participants. PPTA also had funding from it for one of our professional conferences.
Posted by: blogger
on Feb 4, 2010
By Winged Avenger
2010 should be all about the NZ curriculum. Instead, the government is determined to railroad teachers into focusing on national standards.
Secondary teachers already know the downsides of too much summative assessment and league tables, both of which are key features of the national standards.
Teachers want to use the NZC as a platform for developing great teaching for diverse learners; parents want plain-English reporting of their kids’ progress. Neither group needs the national standards to achieve these goals.
Posted by: Cynic
on Feb 3, 2010
National standards for patients
The government intends to introduce national standards that will enable patients and concerned observers to compare medical practices online, and potentially identify poorly performing doctors.
This comes after political analysis of a new report revealed 30% of doctors have only a rudimentary understanding of human physiology and inappropriately low expectations, passing up opportunities to motivate and engage patients.
Posted by: Cynic
on Jan 21, 2010
Surface readings
Today my head hurts from trying to follow up on a NZ Herald story that quotes from the Unesco report Reaching the marginalised (Education For All global monitoring report 2010):
year 11 Maori students enrolled in kura kaupapa immersion schools did significantly better than Maori in English-language schools (p.206)
so I tried to follow up. I looked at Nga Haeata Matauranga (the Annual Reports on Maori Education)
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