Reports & Media

The National Party wants to see teachers get back to the basics with a bigger focus on reading, writing and maths. The party introduced its policy yesterday, including a standardised assessment of student progress for primary students. Read more

A recent report revealed that a third of 15-year-olds cannot read at a basic adult standard. Numeracy rates are similarly worrying, with many students battling to comprehend basic mathematics. Read more

There are many pressing problems facing New Zealand, but none more urgent than the decay of our once great education system. For more than two decades, the literacy and numeracy achievement of our young people has been declining. Read more

More families could receive a $72.50 a week tax credit, as part of a massive and fundamental change to the system, after a review of the $3 billion Working for Families tax credit system that ended last year. A review of the scheme, which currently supports just under 350,000 families with children, is before Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni, and has found serious design issues in the way some of the tax credits are applied. Read more

Recent Ministry of Education publications bring mātauranga Māori concepts into the school curriculum. While concepts like mauri, a Māori term meaning “vital essence” or “life force”, may have something to offer science as a reflection of ecosystem health or the “life-supporting capacity” of rivers, any interpretation that equated mauri with chemical properties, or as “the binding force between the physical and the spiritual”, had no place in the chemistry curriculum and proposals to incorporate traditional knowledge in science curricula need a lot more reflection, with nobody excluded from the conversation. Read more

Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB asks Finance Minister Grant Robertson about his thoughts on the points raised in Dr Bryce Wilkinson's latest report, Made by Government: New Zealand's Monetary Policy Mess.

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