Evaluating
performance in our universities
Dr
Ron Smith
27 March 2011
As
2011 begins, academic staff at New Zealand Universities will
emerge from all the ‘formative exercises’, ‘mentoring’
and ‘coaching’ sessions of recent years, to get straight
into the real thing: Performance Based
Research Funding... More
>>>
Militant
unions failing our students
10 October 2010
Muriel Newman
Last
month an estimated 280,000 students and their parents were
badly disrupted through strike action by members of the Post
Primary Teachers' Union. Some 16,000 teachers went on
strike... More >>>
It's
Time to Call the Teachers' Bluff
10 October 2010
Karl
du Fresne
History
tells us that when a government takes on a trade union, there
can be only one outcome. In 1912, William Massey’s
government famously crushed a strike by Waihi gold miners. The
following year, the same administration...
More
>>>
Protest,
Propaganda and Petitions
2 May 2010
Muriel Newman
On Saturday some 20,000 people marched down Queen Street
protesting against the government’s proposals to mine
conservation land. The rally was organised by Greenpeace with
some protesters bussed in...
More >>>
Politically
Correct Education and the Cultural Revolution
1 May2010
Kevin
Donnelly
Across
the English-speaking world, debates have flared periodically
about the impact of political correctness and left-wing
ideology on the school curriculum.
Education has become a central part of the culture wars
and debates ...
More
>>>
Improving
Outcomes
19 July 2009
Muriel Newman
In a free society, the traditional way for today’s
disadvantaged to become tomorrow’s privileged is through
education. Throughout the ages parents have made
extraordinary sacrifices to ensure their children succeed....
More
>>>
Truancy:
a costly societal illness
19 July 2009
Michael Irwin
Truancy
is a societal disease; which left untreated spreads and affects
the social, physical, judicial and economic well being within
our communities. Every day over 25,000 children are absent from
our schools...
More
>>>
Opposing
Secret School Registers
5 June 2009
Allan Peachey MP
To
whom is the New Zealand schooling system answerable?
Certainly not to parents and children who are the people
who should matter most. More
>>>
Time
to Modernise Education
3 May 2009
Muriel Newman
According to the Ministry of
Education in their briefing to the incoming government,
“The system continues to under-perform for a significant
minority of students. Major challenges remain. A
significant minority of students struggle to obtain core
skills in areas such as literacy and numeracy...."
More
>>>
Conspicuously
Politically Incorrect
3 May 2009
Allan Peachey, MP
During
2004 I wrote a book “What’s up with our schools?
a New Zealand principal speaks out”, published in
2005 by Random Press... Nothing
that I have seen or heard in four years as a Member of
Parliament has changed my view... More
>>>
The
Tyranny of Fadism:
PBRF and other stories
13
September 08
Dr Ron Smith
Education leaders are no more inclined than
politicians to confess that they were wrong. This, says Dr
Ron Smith, leads to an inertia and the continuing
waste of hundreds of millions of dollars of tertiary
education money on the ill-conceived performance based
research funding (PBRF), which since 2003 has attempted to
assess the intrinsic value of individual research in
universities and allocate funds accordingly..." More
>>>
Education
Matters
3
August 2008
Muriel Newman
Education matters. If we are really serious about building
a first world economy, then we must ensure that every
child – no matter what their background – is given the
skills to contribute to their fullest possible extent to
our nation’s future.
More
>>>
How
Effective Is NZ's Education System?
2
August 08
Dr. Kevin Donnelly
How
effective is New Zealand’s education system?
Based on the performance of 15 year old students in
the OECD’s 2006 Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) test, where students are ranked near the
top out of 30 countries,
some argue that there is cause for celebration. More
>>>
China,
NZ and the Free Trade Agreement
14
June 08
Prof Roger Bowden
Visiting
China
is a disconcerting experience these days. The main or
central campus of
Xiamen
University
, which is where I’ve just been, has nearly 30,000
students, every single one of them postgraduate. It’s a startling experience
to deliver an official lecture and to have so many
students ask perceptive and knowledgeable questions -- in
very good English! More
>>>
Selling our Kids
Short
Muriel Newman
11 Nov 07
The new
primary and secondary school curriculum was launched this
week amidst fanfare
claiming that it is leading edge and progressive. However,
the new curriculum may well sell New Zealand children – and
teachers - short.
More >>>
NZ
Curriculum: Backward looking and dumbed down
Dr
Kevin Donnelly
11 November 07
New Zealand and Australia have a good
deal in common: breeding Melbourne Cup winners, the ANZAC
legend, Captain Cook and not making rugby world cup
finals. Education
is another area where we share many of the same
characteristics. Since
the early 90s, both countries have adopted what is termed
an outcomes-based education (OBE) model of curriculum
development.
More
>>>
Politics
in Schools on Trial
Muriel Newman
7
October 2007
Schools
around New Zealand that are using Al Gore’s
controversial film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ to promote
the Government’s climate change agenda should be warned
that a High Court ruling in Britain has just found that
the film is unfit for schools.
More >>>
A Loss of Confidence
Bruce Logan
6 October 07
I can't resist something from
Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure: "liberty
plucks justice by the nose; The baby beats the nurse, and
quite athwart Goes all decorum."
More
>>>
How
good is our Education System?
Muriel Newman
4
June 2007
Record
numbers of New Zealanders tuned in to watch TV One’s Dancing
with the Stars last Tuesday as the last two finalists squared
off against each other. The widespread interest in that
contest, as well as other reality challenge shows and sports
in general, demonstrates that the love of competition is
indeed alive and well in New Zealand society.
More
>>>
Latest
NCEA, overhaul does not go far enough
Steve Thomas
3 June 07
If
the NCEA was a car would you drive your kids anywhere in
it? Based on its performance over the past five years,
probably not, since you could not be confident your kids
would reach their destination intact—that is, having a
qualification that is meaningful and precise. Among the
frustrations with the NCEA are extreme variability in pass
rates in both external and internal achievement standards,
ranging from anywhere between 10 to 30 percent, and
simplistic reporting of results to pupils and parents
using either “achieved” or “not achieved,” which
has had the effect of lumping every pupil into one of two
very broad groups.
More
>>>
'Reasonable
Force' in Schools
Muriel Newman
15 April
07
The anti-smacking
activists claim that with corporal punishment having been
banned in schools, banning it in the home is simply the
next step towards eliminating violence against children.
But the argument just isn’t credible.
More
>>>
The
Rise of Violence in Schools
Bruce Logan
14 April 07
It's not always a good idea to base an argument on
personal experience but I will risk it. In 1989, just
before the abolition of corporal punishment in schools, I
was a member of the PPTA executive and invited to appear
on a TV programme with Russell Marshall, the then Minister
of Education. I commented that I was not convinced the
majority of teachers were in favour of abolition. More
>>>
Education only way for Maori
Alan Duff
27 Jan 07
What’s as disturbing as the murders we’re seeing in
increasing numbers and with increasing brutality is the
level of family support the alleged offenders get, and
the self-justification of both offenders and their
family members and advocates. Nathan Fenton, whose
frenzied hour and a half murderous attack on his partner
is suggested as being down to P is self-justification
gone mad. Sure, he no doubt took P before the attack.
But note he had a clear enough head to warn witnesses
they’d better not say anything or he’d come after
them. A man who has truly “lost it” doesn’t give
such self-preservation a thought. This evil monster knew
exactly what he was doing and let us hope the sentencing
judge sets a precedent and tells him, you’re not
coming out except in a coffin. Though he won’t, you
can bet on that. Liberal judges are part of the problem,
but in no way are they any of the cause.
More
>>>
Strikes, Mathematics and
Religion
Muriel
Newman
26 August 06
Over
the last week, three controversies have served to
undermine confidence in the effectiveness of state
education: the threat of strike action by secondary
teachers, the decline in primary school children’s
maths skills, and a religious instruction debacle that
looks set to result in a massively unworkable
bureaucratic nightmare!
More >>>
Maori
under-performance
Alan
Duff
8 July 06
I’ve yet to hear one person suggest compulsory
parenting courses at high school. I’ve yet to hear
suggestions of imposing consequences on bad parents. The
law of consequence – in other words, taking
responsibility for our own actions – has left the
lexicon. Well, where Maori are concerned it has.
There’s always some professional excuse-monger who
leaps up and blames “the system” or “government”
or “Child, Youth & Family” or “Western
culture” on our every failing.
More
>>>
Choice Improves Quality
Muriel
Newman
24 June 06
A
good education is one of the greatest gifts that parents
can give to their children: education provides skills that
equip people to make their way successfully in an
increasingly complex world. More >>>
Harming our Young
Muriel
Newman
7 May 06
Our
capacity to imagine dire outcomes is infinite. From the
creaking of the house in the dead of night evoking vivid
images of an approaching intruder, to a delayed arrival
bringing fears of dreadful traffic accidents, we commonly
imagine the worst. More >>>
Harm Minimisation
Pauline
Gardiner
7 May 06
Governments over
the past 15 – 20 years have predicated their drug policy
on the one single approach of Harm Minimisation, the
various interpretations of which have progressed to the
current more acceptable definition in the current Draft
National Drug Policy 2006-2111, which states: “A harm
minimization approach does not condone harmful or illicit
drug use.
The most effective way to minimize harm from drugs
is not to use them……… It encompasses a wide range of
approaches, including abstinence-oriented strategies and
initiatives for people who use drugs”.
More
>>>
Education or Social Engineering?
Muriel
Newman
5 Feb 06
This
week, in an unusual move, the Ministry of Education agreed
that some Northland parents would not be forced to send
their children to a poorly performing high school. More >>>
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