The whole country is aware that State school education in NZ is poor overall shape. Significant absenteeism, let alone achievement. Term 1 was challenging with strikes (because the Ministry and unions have failed to reach agreement from May of last year). Add in storms, cyclones and teacher only days and students and families, at some level, must be wondering why they bother.
Apparently Year 4 – 8 classes have a funded ratio of 29 students. This is not a strict rule and schools can use the operation funds to reduce that. It would also be interesting to know just how often every student is present in a class so far into 2023.
So … Labour decide to make an announcement. They tell journalists it will be at Remuera Intermediate – which must have struggled to get a quorum in the holidays. And not just the Minister of Education is going to be there but the PM himself. This must be huge.
The announcement … that from 2025 they will reduce class sizes for Years 4 – 8 from 29 to 28. But wait – there is more and extra 320 teachers across 2000 Primary and Intermediate schools and … a new Ministerial Advisory Group (5.5 years into their term) to investigate class size in our schools and make recommendations.
Some high profile Principals, normally supportive of Labour have shown it for what it is:
“I just think it’s ludicrous,” Finlayson Park School principal Shirley Maihi told Checkpoint. “I think it’s a slap in the face. And it certainly won’t entice people to come into the teaching profession.”
Can teachers choose which child they don’t want to have in their class?
Watching it I thought it was the funniest political announcement I have ever seen and this scene would have been mimicked across newsrooms and the members of the other parties.
Stuff reports:
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will attend the NATO leaders summit in July as the United States-led military alliance seeks to increase its presence in the Pacific and further strengthen its ties in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Very pleased to see Hipkins agree to attend. It is important we are seen as resisting autocratic regimes trying to overthrow democratic regimes through military might.
John Tamihere writes:
If we were playing Jeopardy, the answer is Māori, and the winning question is, who owns the water?
What is bizarre to me is that people who have stolen an asset are now having a debate about the rights over it.
We reject co-governance because we want to have the appropriate conversation about the elephant in the room: how did Pākeha get to the table on a 100% Māori-owned asset?
So there we have it clear as day – the assertion that water is owned 100% by Maori. Yep nothing less than the liquid responsible for life on earth is owned by Maori.
And people wonder why there is going division in New Zealand.
The Herald reports:
Taxpayers are forking out $1.2 million a week to keep the wheels turning on the Government’s $14.6 billion light rail project in Auckland.
Auckland Light Rail (ALR) is paying about $920,000 a week to two engineering companies to plan and design the central city-to-airport light rail project and a further $310,000 to its own contractors and consultants.
They’re just burning cash!
$1.2 million a week is $30,000 an hour. So even if we assume the contractors get paid $300 an hour that means 100 contractors working 40 hours a week on a project that will end up like their cycle bridge to nowhere.
The Herald reports:
The Local Government Minister is causing concern in the Opposition after detailing his belief that New Zealand’s founding document contains provisions that are different from a “purely academic democratic framework”.
Equality of suffrage is not just an academic concept. It is a fundamental human right according to two international conventions we subscribe to.
The Local Government Minister is causing concern in the Opposition after detailing his belief that New Zealand’s founding document contains provisions that are different from a “purely academic democratic framework”. …
There are provisions that we have in this country that wouldn’t stand up to a purely academic democratic framework but that’s not how we work in New Zealand.”
Again he is talking about equality of suffrage here.
The Herald reports:
Some frontline police have been told to “consider necessity of arrests” in some circumstances because one of the country’s largest prisons is nearly full.
The email, seen by the Herald on Sunday, was sent to staff in Wellington on Friday.
Titled “custody of remand detainees” the email from a senior sergeant says due to Rimutaka Prison being at “near maximum occupancy”, the District Custody Unit (DCU) would begin caring for the overflow of Corrections remand detainees when required.
It warns that: “Repeat breach of bail and warrant offenders may be remanded in Police custody for a prolonged period. Arresting officers should consider this before making an arrest.”
This helps explain how violent offending has increased 42% since 2017, yet prosecutions have declined 13%, convictions declines 18% and imprisonment sentences have declined 36%.
It’s a catch and release system!
The Herald reports:
Hospital employees in New Zealand filed more than 23,000 formal reports warning of unsafe levels of staffing in the past three years, a Weekend Herald investigation has found.
I’m sure this is absolutely normal and nothing at all to worry about.
The Herald reports:
Another 2500 kilometres of road has been identified as having speed limits too fast to be safe, according to Waka Kotahi. …
The agency has earlier marked 7465km across New Zealand where the speed limit is higher than what it calls “safe and appropriate”.
This equates to more than 85 per cent of the country’s roads.
So the Government wanted to reduce speed limits on 85% of NZ’s roads and now has found another 2,500 kms it thinks should have a lower limit.
I think we can conclude that the Government considers every road in NZ as unsafe, and they all need to be reduced to say cycling speed.
Presumably they want to turn the clock back to 1973, when the speed limit was cut from 100 km/hr to 80 km/hr to save oil. Or perhaps they want to go back to the 1930 speed limit of 48 km/hr?
This is pretty outrageous to run a story quoting John Tamihere as a political commentator, when he is in fact the President of the Maori Party.
You can be a party president or you can be a political commentator – you can’t be both.
The Herald reports:
NZ First will try to claw its way back into Parliament by running a “two-tick” campaign in Northland through veteran MP Shane Jones.
The party tumbled out of Parliament in 2020, when Jones was also running a two-tick campaign in the seat. He came third, more than 10,000 votes behind Natonal’s Matt King.
Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime won the seat – but narrowly.
This means there are five credible candidates in Northland:
It is possible that someone could win the seat with as little as 25% of the vote. Definitely a seat to watch.
An eight to ten hour season of television can capture the essence of a book far more than a two to three hour film.
It will be weird to see new actors in the roles, but I am hopeful the casting will be as good as for the films.
I was somewhat underwhelmed with the final film, especially the confrontation between Voldemort and Harry. I am hopeful the TV series will redeem that.
The Herald reports:
The Government’s decision to prevent the carbon price from rising in line with market expectations is costing taxpayers half a billion dollars.
As at the end of February, the Crown accounts were $486 million more in the red than forecast by the Treasury in December due to the carbon price plummeting. …
Cabinet’s surprise decision to prevent the carbon price from rising saw it fall from $85 in December to a low point of around $53, before rising a little to $59 at the time of writing.
The gyration is primarily concerning because it risks eroding trust and confidence in the ETS – an important tool relied upon to incentivise companies to lower their emissions.
If the ETS is allowed to function properly, it is by far the cheapest and most effective way to reduce emissions. We have had the ETS for 15 years now. The Government should no longer be setting a cap on the ETS price.
If there is a concern about the impact of the ETS on the cost of living, then the answer is to give money back to households through a climate dividend from ETS revenue.
The Black and Tans were a brutal British Police force which was hated by the Irish. Confusing them anywhere is unfortunate, but in Ireland even more so.
The so called major changes to the unpopular Three Waters are as follows:
So all they had done is two pieces of gaslighting and an increase in the number of entities.
The water entities will remain unaccountable to taxpayers and ratepayers. They will be able to hike up water charges massively, and there will be no way to sack them. It will be the equivalent of taxation without representation.
If you believe in democratic accountability, then the only way to achieve it will be to change the Government.
Radio NZ reports:
Newly drafted rules about advertising to children should apply to all under 18-year-olds, rather than under 16-year-olds, a leading food and nutrition policy expert says.
Hilarious. We are being told that 16 and 17 year olds are mature enough to be given the vote, but they are not mature enough to see advertisements!
University of Auckland researcher Fiona Sing told RNZ the criteria should be under-18s – to match the United Nations’ definition of a child.
“Teenage children do need to be protected just as much as younger children because they are – they have proven to be – vulnerable, their cognitive abilities have been shown to be still developing,” she said.
“Studies that show that up to 18 is an important time to still be protecting [children] from exposure from harmful marketing. And also, obviously, purchasing power has increased. Clearly, there’s purchasing power from a younger age too, but we move away from children who have pester power, and can try nag their parents, to actually money in their pockets and having the ability to have a direct impact.
Actually brains don’t fully develop until age 25, so just to be safe we should set the voting age at 25, along with the age for seeing advertisemernts!
Geoffrey Miller writes:
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has New Zealand firmly in its sights.
Last week, New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta attended the annual NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels – alongside her counterparts from Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Mahuta’s participation came after New Zealand’s then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined last June’s NATO leaders’ summit in Madrid. Mahuta was also a guest at the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in April 2022, albeit only in virtual form. …
Second, it shows how New Zealand is continuing to forge a more hardline foreign policy stance under Hipkins’ leadership.
After all, the involvement of the AP4 in NATO is being driven chiefly by the alliance’s interest in China. …
Indeed, the NATO Secretary General openly linked the alliance’s recent deepening of partnerships with Indo-Pacific countries such as New Zealand with NATO’s China strategy – which he called a ‘huge effort’.
Of course, unlike Finland – which became NATO’s 31st member last week – New Zealand cannot formally join NATO, given the alliance’s geographic focus.
It is correct that NZ can’t join NATO. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that only territories north of the Tropic of Cancer are covered. This means that an attack on Hawaii would not actually trigger a NATO response, while an attack on the other 49 states would.
For one, it means that New Zealand will almost certainly strive to meet NATO’s military spending target of 2 per cent of GDP – a figure which Stoltenberg described last week as a ‘floor not a ceiling’.
I’ll be delighted if we commit to increase our defence spending to 2% of GDP.
The Herald reports:
New Zealand could face a bill of $24 billion in the years leading up to 2030 in order to meet its international climate change targets, according to a Government report. …
New Zealand has committed internationally under the Paris Agreement to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 by 50 per cent below gross emission levels in 2005, part of global efforts to limit warming to below 1.5C.
Essentially, to meet that target, New Zealand’s emissions between 2021 and 2030 must not exceed 571 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent gases (Mt C02e).
For context, in the year to June 2021, New Zealand emitted 84 Mt CO2e, or just under one-sixth of the entire budget.
So we will pay up to $24 billion to see a reduction in greenhouse gases of around 240 Mt. As a comparison China over the last ten years has emitted 21,000 Mt more than their 2009 level of emissions. So our $24 billion price tag will see a reduction over ten years which is less than 1/10th of the annual increase for China alone.
Think about what you could achieve spending that $24 billion on say better schools and hospitals?
Our State schooling system, with some exceptions where there is a strong and academically focused leader, is in deep trouble. Indicators are:
Just when you thought things could not get any worse we have one document working its way into “Relationship and Sexuality” education in Years 1 – 8 (2020) which features statements such as:
In English, ākonga can:
• critically explore how the diversity of families, schools, and communities is represented in texts
• explore and critique the representation of gender roles and relationships in texts
• co-construct ground rules for engaging in critical discussions about text content
• create oral, visual, or written texts about the roles and relationships within their whānau or family
• engage in dialogue and debate in the context of provocative online posts linked to relationships, gender, and sexuality
In science, ākonga can:
• consider how biological sex has been constructed and measured over time and what this means in relation to people who have variations in sex characteristics
• consider variations in puberty, including the role of hormone blockers
This is for children between 5 and 12 years old (Year 1 – 8). There is no way they are going to be allowed to be kids. They get the worries of the adult world thrust down upon them and, for the record, I have always felt the sex and sexuality education belongs in the home.
Then there is the “Curriculum Refresh” taking place. Here is the base document and if you can make clear sense of it you deserve an Honourary PhD.
Refreshed New Zealand Curriculum
Vision for Young People and purpose
A refreshed Te Tiriti-Honouring and Inclusive Curriculum Framework will be introduced. The Framework will include a whakapapa, a Vision for Young People – written by young people, for young people, and a purpose statement calling us to action with key shifts to ensure equity and inclusion for all ākonga.
Curriculum levels and achievement objectives.
Designed to be cumulative – progressions replaces curriculum levels and achievement objectives with five phases of learning. Each phase of learning contains progress outcomes that describe what ākonga should Understand, Know, and Do at each phase of learning.
Learning areas, mātauranga Māori, key competencies, literacy and numeracy
The refreshed NZC will be organised around the same eight learning areas and key competencies from the 2007 Curriculum. Mātauranga Māori will sit at the heart of the learning areas – with key competencies, literacy, and numeracy explicitly woven into each learning area.
There will be further opportunities to have your say on the Framework in term one 2023.
Gifted by Dr Wayne Ngata and members of our Rōpū Kaitiaki, “Te Mātaiaho” is the proposed working name for the Curriculum Framework and means “to observe and examine the strands of learning.”
Te Mātaiaho brings to life the shifts required for ākonga to see themselves and their learning in the refreshed curriculum. Grounded in the power of observation, Te Mātaiaho weaves together all elements that will make up the whole of The New Zealand Curriculum. More than a Framework, Te Mātaiaho is a tool that navigates the future for our ākonga by honouring our past to enrich our present.
What Te Mātaiaho includes:
• a whakapapa
• a refreshed purpose statement calling us to action
• a Te Tiriti o Waitangi statement
• a refreshed Vision for Young People – written by young people, for young people”.
New Zealand does not need this “Refresh”. Our system desperately needs a curriculum simplification and a return to high aspiration for all.
If you are a parent, grandparent or otherwise involved what can you do?
Whenever it can the Ministry of Education seeks to take back control and not all alternatives keep working and fully investigating each option is important. In 2014 & 15 I helped to establish two Partnership/Charter Schools – South Auckland Middle and Middle School West Auckland. They began well and were making a genuine academic difference to the children. In 2018 Labour turned them into State schools. From the end of 2020 I no longer had direct involvement but did have a data oversight service agreement. Those who left at the end of 2020 and prior were achieving NCEA L1 and 86% (SAMS) and 80% (MSWA) in the high schools they went to. When I did the evaluation for 2021 leavers those results – in a year – had dropped to 41% and 27%. School leaders – e.g. the MSWA Principal – now talk of success as “in whatever way you might choose to measure success” – an approach that is rife throughout underachieving schools (does a good arm fart count as success?). Their solution to the problems the data review showed was most Ministry like – they are choosing to no longer gather the data! The soft bigotry of low expectations.
From the start of the government’s response to the pandemic to October 2022 home-schooling in NZ had risen by 80%. If you have the time and expertise it is a very good option for many. Most towns/cities have home-schooling networks for social interaction, sports and field trips. Two barriers are; that you have to go through a process to get Ministry of Education approval to teach your own kids (in the UK it is simply a notification from parents) and organising for the sitting of assessments at Year 11 – 13 can be problematic.
At the beginning of 2021 I helped launch a very good option for students/parents who are dissatisfied, concerned about ideology, geographically isolated, traumatised by their State school, or have no choice in their local area. I am no longer directly involved but Mt Hobson Middle School Connected is brilliantly lead and staffed with a world class programme. It is for children Year 1 – 13. They make use of virtual classrooms and ensure that their students across the country regularly meet up. As a private school there is so much more freedom. There are fees but they are moderate compared to brick and mortal schools. It is also a real investment for your child’s future. They have two options:
Because MHAC is a registered school parents withdrawing from their State school and enrolling does not need the Ministry’s permission and the school has full authority to assess for NCEA.
As more and more people realise that the State/Ministry are travelling in the opposite direction to what families want, and what high quality education is, more people will take up alternative options. In Australia Private and Catholic schools make up 36.6% of the provision. In New Zealand that figure is only 15.3% and the Ministry try and keep a clamp on this through not approving new Designated Character or Integrated Schools and the government allocates a tiny amount of support to Private Schools.
This is a watershed time for NZ and education is at the heart of it. This government and Ministry are a disgrace and it is time for parents to take things into their own hand – it is their children that are having their futures ripped away. Withdrawal from State education is an international trend.
According to a new joint analysis by the Associated Press and researchers from Stanford University, a whopping 1.2 million K-12 schoolchildren remain missing from public schools since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in 2020. The study, which examined 22 jurisdictions, found that roughly 26% of these students switched to homeschooling.
The Herald reports:
The Green Party may allow staff members to submit their experiences to a review of the conduct of MP Elizabeth Kerekere, if that is where the investigation leads.
The Herald understands there has been a pattern of infractions involving Kerekere and staff who work at Parliament, and even other MPs – many akin to the behaviour that got Kerekere in trouble last week over a message she sent that appeared to call fellow Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick a “crybaby”.
Kerekere denied the “crybaby” remark referred to Swarbrick.
A Green Party spokesperson would not comment on whether the party was aware of incidents involving Kerekere’s behaviour towards staff. Kerekere did not respond to requests to comment.
By coincidence I was chatting to a Green Party insider the day before Kerekere sent her crybaby message. The insider commented that Kerekere was the most unpleasant person in the Green Party they had encountered.
So I am sure that there are scores of stories from staff and others about Kerekere. For this reason, I suspect they will rule them out of bounds.