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When my colleague Oliver Hartwich first tried explaining the German school system to me, he might as well have been speaking German. It seemed entirely foreign. Read more

Many of you must remember that ‘oh, shoot, now what?’ feeling you had with your graduation cap in one hand, and a hefty bill in the other. I do. Read more

Tracey Martin wants to regulate the meaning of a commonly used word. It is a breath-taking ambition, even for a politician. Read more

The best thing about the National government was its focus on evaluation. Finance Minister English often reminded us a large portion of government spending was probably wasted. Read more

As recently as in the 1920s, cyclists in the Tour de France would take ‘smoking breaks’, assisting team-mates to light-up while still cycling. Since then, scientific research and evidence has well and truly debunked the myth that smoking is good for athletic performance. Read more

Perhaps it is a product of New Zealand’s geographic isolation, which creates concern not to be left behind. But since moving here from England my education hogwash-o-meter has been reading unusually high. Read more

When concerned parents ask me why kids all seem to pass NCEA with little or no effort, I sometimes use the subprime mortgage crisis as an analogy. This is how it goes. Read more

If you wanted to know how well New Zealand’s education system and Kiwi students were doing, you really wouldn’t want to start with NCEA data. Getting a comparative assessment of students’ strengths was never the point of NCEA. Read more