Posted by: Tom Haig
on 10, Nov, 2012
Tagged in:
secondary schools ,
public education ,
private schools ,
National Party Education Policy ,
Maori achievement ,
Hekia Parata ,
funding ,
Fees ,
equity ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
education policy ,
education
So a day after announcing the closure of two residential special schools, Parata announces the government is going to be giving $3 million a year to Wanganui Collegiate.
Collegiate is a decile 10 school, which according to the 2011 ERO report had no Pasifika students and 11% Maori.
The same ERO report praised its ‘relatively small class sizes’ which enabled teachers to know their students well, and commented on the ‘success rates considerably above national comparison levels.’ Yep, well that’s what a top private school is supposed to do, right?
Parata and Longstone have been berating schools and teachers to raise the achievement of Maori, Pasifika, special needs and students from low-socio-economic status families - these are supposed to be the priority learners that are the Minister’s ‘unrelenting’ focus.
Posted by: Cynic
on 08, May, 2012
Tagged in:
school choice ,
research ,
private schools ,
politics ,
Maori achievement ,
John Banks ,
charters ,
charter schools ,
Charter school working group ,
Catherine Isaac ,
ACT Party
Charter schools - New Zealand education for sale - - you can buy anonymously 
it's a captive market, guaranteed income from the taxpayer and regulation free, ... sign up here.
'I can be objective' says Isaac - and my appointment is not political
Well tie me to an anthill and smear my ears with jam! I just couldn't maintain my zen listening to Catherine Isaac on Native Affairs. Cynic is back.
Have a listen to this paragon of virtue on Native Affairs and then tell me she's objective.
Posted by: Observer
on 09, Jul, 2010
Associate education minister and trainee space cadet, Hon Heather Roy, has stumbled on the shambles that passes for an education policy in England and is advocating it here. Now anyone who has had the sad experience of teaching in a state school in England knows that it is not a system to emulate. Basically, the English system runs for the benefit of the elite private schools Eton and Harrow etc (though they call them public) and state schools are treated as either whipping boys or political footballs or both.
Posted by: Winged Avenger
on 11, Feb, 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 09, Dec, 2009
Tagged in:
vouchers ,
Tomorrow's Schools ,
teachers ,
privatisation ,
private schools ,
power ,
politics ,
Performance pay ,
education spending ,
education ,
Don Brash ,
2025 taskforce
Don Brash is famous for two things
By ToilandTrouble
- His willingness to use race in order to advance his campaign for political power in 2005, and:
- His ability to survive for many weeks on a diet of corned beef and frozen peas.
He is also an economist and we know how many of them it takes to change a light bulb (none, the darkness will cause the light bulb to change itself). In sum he is overwhelmingly under-qualified to comment on educational matters. That doesn't matter though because economists are immune to intellectual humility, untroubled by their own ignorance and always ready to draw a crooked line from an unproved assumption to a forgone conclusion.
