Category: Education
The changes currently being undertaken by the Government in the education sector have been described as the biggest shake-up since Tomorrow's Schools set-up school boards in 1989. The driving motivation behind the reforms is a desire by National to improve the quality of educational outcomes - especially for students at risk of failure - and to provide a greater choice of schooling for parents.
I recently read the biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It was an excellent portrait of one of the 20th century’s most creative entrepreneurs. But I was also surprised to find some interesting insights into the need to reform America’s education system, both from stories of Steve Jobs’ formative years and in the opinions he expressed.
A nation’s future is determined by the vision of its leadership. That is essentially the message that Taranaki born Stephen Jennings, one of country's most successful global entrepreneurs, delivered when he returned to New Zealand last month to present a keynote address for the New Zealand Initiative.
It’s great to be back in Auckland. I studied economics here in the ‘80s and I’m grateful to Auckland University for sparking my interest in how markets and institutions really work. The windsurfing was pretty good as well. As a newly minted economist I lived in Wellington for eight years working at the Treasury...
Parents have always gone to great lengths to impress on their children that education is the key to the future. According to this age old wisdom, those who are well educated can look forward to good jobs and higher wages.
Everybody loves complaining about education; either theirs, or more typically, someone else’s. But things do rather come to a head when politicians spot a voting opportunity.
While David Cameron has high aspirations for a united Britain, things are very different in New Zealand. Here, successive Prime Ministers have turned their backs on equality under the law, focussing instead on appeasement policies that divide our country along racial lines.
Last week a fifteen year old schoolgirl created an uproar in the education sector when she dared to publicly criticise the teaching profession. Asked to “write a persuasive speech” about something year 10 students had strong opinions on, Anela Pritchard of Napier Girls’ High School wrote about the school system and teachers.
The reality is that increased funding during the past 20 to 30 years, in Australia and overseas, has not led to stronger outcomes. What is required is a new model of schooling based on the right balance between competition, choice, autonomy and accountability.
The Human Rights Commission has been a strong defender of the public’s right to the freedom of expression in New Zealand. It is therefore ironic that it has now created a permanent register which “names and shames” anyone who speaks out on the thorny issue of race relations, whose published opinions they deem to be negative.
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