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The very best part of grad school was the drinking. Well, not so much the drinking. Read more
The government’s proposal to reform New Zealand’s underachieving vocational education sector is laudable, but there are still concerns that need to be addressed, says a new research note from The New Zealand Initiative. The research note, Hands-on: New suggestions to reform New Zealand's vocational sector, identifies what changes need to be implemented to ensure the vocational education sector is given the same positive level of attention as a university education: Industry training has to become more attractive for students and employers alike in order for it to be seen as a successful career path The roles of different educational institutions in the vocational sector have to be clearly defined to manage expectations, and Existing institutions must be independent and self-reliable so that they look for partners early and don’t count on the government to step in once the business model has proven to be dysfunctional for many years. Read more
Few parents would give their child a cough medicine that had not been trialled. The potential risks of doing so are endless. Read more
For someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail, they say. For politicians, large-scale restructuring and reorganisations are sometimes that hammer. Read more
Just on the horizon is the promise of better management of student data and the potential for better research on New Zealand school performance. Better data and insights are invariably the precursor to improvement and better outcomes for students. Read more
In the next 10 years, 100,000 more children are expected to enrol in New Zealand schools. In response to this “unprecedented population growth”, the Ministry of Education established the National Education Growth Plan (NEGP) earlier this month. Read more
Through his review of NCEA, Education Minister Chris Hipkins has demonstrated how successful consultations can be. The six Big Opportunities presented last year by the Ministerial Advisory Group were a mixed bag. Read more
The saying goes that a camel is like a horse designed by a committee. Of course, the analogy does not actually work to denigrate the work of committees – camels are highly adapted to desert life – but, still, the image of a misshapen horse holds meaning, and relevance to NCEA. Read more
Wellington (28 May 2019): As teachers prepare to leave the classroom on strike, a new policy point released by The New Zealand Initiative proposes a potential solution to the seemingly impossible impasse. "Minister Hipkins is in a thoroughly unenviable position," said Dr Eric Crampton, the Initiative’s Chief Economist and author of Biting education bullets. Read more
This week, we were happy to see the changes to NCEA announced by Education Minister Chris Hipkins. It is encouraging that the Minister’s NCEA Change Package mirrors so many of the recommendations in our 2018 report, Spoiled by Choice: How NCEA hampers education, and what it needs to succeed. Read more