Category: Education
Decades of pronouncements, proposals, plans, policies, and programmes aimed at reviving Te Reo Māori have acted like an accumulation of grime on the edifice of the language. These accretions need to be cleared away, to get a more detailed impression of the state of the language and its prospects for survival – if indeed there are any.
Election promises have been coming so thick and fast it feels like Christmas. National kicked off their pledges with the announcement that if re-elected, $10.5 billion over ten years will be invested in roading infrastructure to open up the economic potential of the regions .
Democracy has been described as a ‘fragile flower’. Indeed it is, and it's something we take for granted because our relatively young society has not yet experienced its collapse.
The plan by the Maori tribal elite to gain a privileged status and co-governance rights over New Zealand is further advanced than most people realise. The basis for seeking such privileges is racial – it depends on the adoption of ‘biculturalism’ by Government institutions as a de-facto ‘official’ policy.
Professional people have a ‘public’ life as working professionals, and a ‘private’ life as ordinary citizens. This may occasionally lead to inner conflict. The nurse who does not believe in vaccination may find herself pumping vaccines into thousands of children as part of a mass vaccination campaign...
Who could have imagined, that a National Government would embed ‘cultural competency’ training into our education system. But that's exactly what they intend to do on the 1st of July, when the Maori Party’s separatist indoctrination becomes law.
If we were in any doubt that the education system is a powerful force in national politics and cultural values, the Education Council is obliterating that. New Zealanders have repeatedly expressed no appetite for constitutional reform, co-governance, compulsory te reo or a new flag, so now the activists are taking matters into their own hands to entrench their power over our minds.
Listening to the news each day, you could be excused for thinking that the country is shrouded in despair and on the brink of crisis – for, with an election looming, that’s how many in the media are depicting New Zealand. However, before deciding to emigrate, let’s look at how others from outside the country portray us.
The performance of New Zealand school children in international tests has been falling over the years. Meanwhile, countries like Singapore have gone from strength to strength.
The key question asked by many educators and policy makers alike is, how did students in Singapore managed to perform well in both the PISA and TIMSS? What are some possible success factors? To excel in these internationally benchmarked assessments, students have to demonstrate knowledge and additionally, they have to demonstrate the ability to apply their knowledge well to solve real-life problems. How did this happen?
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