Steven Joyce has said today that some tertiary education funding would be linked to student performance and drop-out rates. This is an excellent idea and should provide some incentive for universities and colleges to pay attention to those students who are clearly not doing well, instead of simply writing them off as they usually do. [...]

I confess I do not really understand the debate on national standards for education. This is a sad admission for an opinionated bloke like myself, but I really just don’t understand the teacher’s unions objections to them. I have tried to follow the debate but the union’s response makes no sense at all to me.
It seems [...]

What an interesting bunch of reactions to the Government providing $2.6 million worth of scholarships to allow students from low-income families to attend a private school. The Herald headline gives the initial flavour of envy:
$2.6m for posh-school entry under fire as elitist
What exactly is a “posh” school? I am familiar with a number of Christian [...]

Apparently today is the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. At the time, it was considered probably the most controversial book of all time, although, today, it is probably more boring than controversial and more of a scientific curiosity than a valid scientific treatise. Most of Darwin’s theory has been [...]

I’m puzzled.
There seems to be a lot of negativity being generated by the principles and teachers concerning the new education standards introduced yesterday. I understand the usual plea of  schools saying they “needed more time to prepare”. The education system is notorious for having more resistance to change than even the health system, a resistance [...]

Pita Sharples calls for universities to grant open access to all Maori. He thinks this will improve the percentage of Maoris with bachelors degrees, currently 7.1% as compared to 17.6% for Europeans. I think he is making a number of fundamental errors.
Firstly, as David Farrar points out over at Kiwiblog, giving open access to all [...]

Dr Simon Rowley, one of New Zealand’s top neonatal paediatricians, has placed the cat firmly amongst the pigeons. He has cited some elegant research from Professor Michael Meaney on stress levels in rats and primates and, more particularly, some excellent research by Canadian Professor Megan Gunnar on stress levels in pre-schoolers in daycare, to come to the [...]

There is a follow up article in the Herald on Sunday about Unitec lecturer Pauline Bishop’s comments that time-out and sending children to the “naughty step” are unprofessional teaching tactics in preschools.  (see indiscipline).  Of particular interest in this comment:
Dr Sarah Farquhar, chief executive of the Early Childhood Council, said Bishop’s remarks were “a bit off”. They [...]

I initially thought that this article was some sort of satire, until, with mounting horror, I decide the perpetrators were not only deadly serious, but certifiably insane. Apparently, not only are teachers not able to use any form of physical discipline, they are not supposed to be using any discipline at all! This is the gist of [...]

There is a very sad story in the Timaru Herald today. A man was sent to prison for his fourth assault on his children. This was not a man in the category of the murderers of Nia Glassie. This was a man who clearly loved his children, but found it hard to differentiate between discipline and punishment. [...]