Dr Michael Johnston: Nothing endures but change

Last week, Labour announced its flagship education policy for the election. If it wins in November, it will introduce a new statutory authority, called the Independent Council for Curriculum and Assessment (ICCA). The New Zealand Principals' Federation first proposed the idea in August.

The ICCA would oversee future development of school curricula and national assessment systems. Labour’s education spokesperson Ginny Andersen said, “educational professionals should be determining what children learn and how they learn, not the minister of education.”

Dr Michael Johnston: Not achieved

One of the most important things teachers can do to help their students improve is to give them feedback on their work. To be effective, feedback must be timely and specific.

As the election campaign gathers pace, it is timely to give the political parties some feedback on their policies. They certainly need improvement.

Dr Michael Johnston: Tahatu

For young people, contemplating career options can be bewildering. It can be hard even to know what opportunities are available.

Many school leavers enrol at university by default. It is a well-trodden path. In the past, university degrees reliably led to reasonably well-paid work.

There is no guarantee that this will continue to be so. Many occupations for which university has prepared young people in the past may be largely taken over by AI.

Dr Michael Johnston: Is university still worthwhile?

New Zealanders have long seen university as the best educational route to the good life. Trades and industry training is seen as a second-best option.

That attitude has always been based more on prejudice than reality. Skilled tradies are paid well and many go on to start lucrative businesses of their own.

It is time for a serious re-think of the way young people are prepared for the choices they face when they leave school.

Dr Michael Johnston: Grading your grandmother

Victoria University of Wellington wants the teachers it trains to be ‘agents of change.’

According to the university’s handbook for teacher education programmes, teaching graduates must be committed to “social, cultural, and ecological justice.” Decoded, that means attending protests about political causes the activists lecturers find important.

Dr Michael Johnston: Psychology journal controversy shows why professional bodies must stay out of politics

As a former academic, I know how onerous research publication can be. Before being published in a professional journal, an article must undergo peer review. Many articles don’t survive this process. Most require revision before both the reviewers and journal editors are satisfied.

Once an article has been published it becomes part of the permanent research record. Only when there is clear evidence of data fabrication or plagiarism should an article be retracted. Even then, both the article and the reasons for its retraction should remain on the public record.

Dr Michael Johnston: Second-class confidentiality

New Zealanders who visit psychologists would expect their clinical conversations to be private and confidential. But a draft Code of Ethics from the New Zealand Psychologists Board (NZPB), the professional body that registers practising psychologists, would weaken the privacy rights of Māori clients.

The NZPB claims that “…concepts of privacy and confidentiality may be somewhat altered [for Māori] when the sharing of information leads to additional support and culturally appropriate processes…”

In other words, psychologists may be required to water down the privacy rights of Māori clients based on the NZPB’s characterisation of Māori as a “collectivist culture” in its draft code.

Dr Michael Johnston: A test case for universities

In May 2025, University of Otago Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson eloquently explained why universities, as institutions, should be neutral on matters of public and political debate. If universities take stances on political issues, he said, they place members of their communities with different views in a difficult position.

Robertson made those comments when he presented his university’s statement on institutional neutrality, required under the Education and Training Amendment Act 2025. The Act states that “universities, as institutions, should not take public positions on matters that do not directly concern their role or functions.”

Dr Michael Johnston: A good budget for education

Budget 2026 was not a typical election year budget. Instead of breaking out the pork barrel, Finance Minister Nicola Willis brought forward New Zealand’s projected return to surplus by a year, even if the projection rests on some bold assumptions.

Cast in that light, Vote Education did well. While the ‘fees-free’ year for tertiary students was cancelled and, like most government departments, education agencies will have to trim about 12% of their spending over four years, education as a whole came out ahead. In addition to reallocated savings, about $1 billion in new money will be spent on educational essentials over four years.

Dr Michael Johnston: Let’s trade the fees-free tertiary funding for something that works

The worst-kept secret of this afternoon’s budget is that the entitlement to a fees-free year of tertiary study will be scrapped. On 8 May, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters ‘leaked’ the policy change on Newstalk ZB. Finance Minister Nicola Willis subsequently confirmed Peters’ claim.

The fees-free policy was implemented in 2018. Incoming Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had announced to prospective tertiary students, “your first year is on me.” It wasn’t, of course. It was on New Zealand taxpayers, and it has cost them approximately $350 million per year ever since.

Dr Michael Johnston: Einstein’s bastards

The name ‘Einstein’ is synonymous with intelligence. More than 70 years after the physicist’s death, if someone is called an Einstein, everyone knows they are incredibly smart.

Physics students of lesser intellect struggle with the intricacies of Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity. Many would give their eye teeth for some help from the great man himself.

They need struggle no longer. Einstein has been reincarnated as an agentic AI.

Dr Michael Johnston: Setting schools up to succeed in vocational education

Is it better to be a policy analyst or a plumber?

In the minds of many New Zealanders, university degrees carry greater status than industry qualifications. But many tradespeople earn as much, or more, than an average university graduate. Many tradies also go on to start highly successful businesses.

Dr Michael Johnston: Universities’ approach to Treaty at odds with academic freedom

New Zealand’s university leaders seem restless. In recent months, Massey, Victoria, Canterbury and Auckland Universities have all advertised for new Vice Chancellors (VCs).

Along with the things one might expect in a VC, like an outstanding academic record and experience in senior management, the jobs ads all emphasise Treaty of Waitangi considerations. The Massey ad says that ‘Te Tiriti principles are central to its governance and operations.’ Canterbury University wants its new VC to ‘embed Te Tiriti principles across all aspects of university life.’ The University of Auckland claims that ‘a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi is fundamental to its future direction.’

Dr Michael Johnston: Technology lessons

In 2007, then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a ‘digital education revolution.’ His government allocated A$2.4 billion (A$3.9 billion in today’s money) to the project. A large chunk of that went to providing a laptop to every senior secondary student.

Australia was not alone. There was an international rush to adopt digital technology in classrooms. Principals were afraid their schools would be left behind. Eyewatering sums were spent on replacing pens and paper with keyboards and screens.

Dr Michael Johnston: Teachers deserve better than their union

Every two or three years, the Ministry of Education and the teachers’ unions engage in the spectacle of ritual combat known as collective bargaining. In 2025, the Public Service Commissioner took over from the Ministry in the arena. But the exercise remains a ritual.

Everyone knows, more-or-less, what the outcome will be before bargaining even begins. The education budget is fixed, so the government negotiator has very little room to move.

Typically, the ritual goes as follows.

Dr Michael Johnston: Agreeing to disagree

Democracy is easy to take for granted. For most of the last century, it has been advancing around the world.

Older Kiwis witnessed the defeat of fascism and the advent of democracy in Germany, Italy and Japan. Middle-aged New Zealanders remember the fall of the Soviet Union and the spread of democracy across Eastern Europe.

Dr Michael Johnston: A question of priorities

It is more than two weeks since the catastrophic failure of Wellington’s sewage treatment plant at Moa Point. Massive quantities of raw sewage continue to flow into Cook Strait. Many of Wellington’s beaches will likely be closed for months.

The immediate cause of the failure appears to have been a blocked pipe. The inside of the facility was flooded, badly damaging the plant.

Dr Michael Johnston: Smart educational assessment

I have spent more than two decades involved in education research and policy, focusing on New Zealand’s school system. Yet even I struggle to understand my primary-aged daughters’ school reports.

Parents have a right to know how their children are faring at school. Yet lack of national consistency in assessing basics like literacy and numeracy hampers the clarity of school reports. Often, the reports themselves are simply unintelligible.

Dr Michael Johnston: Road cones revisited

This week, 2026 got under way in earnest. Workers are back at work, children are back at school and New Year’s resolutions have faded into distant memory.

Our politicians are back at work too – and they have an exciting year ahead. As our more politically astute readers may be aware, 2026 is an election year.

Dr Michael Johnston: The story that did not count

In many countries, an educational study claiming a radical improvement in mathematics learning would receive considerable media attention. But not, it seems, in New Zealand.

Two weeks ago, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced the results of a trial involving Year 7 and 8 students who were at least a year behind in maths. Nearly 1,400 such students received small-group tutoring four times a week for 12 weeks. In that time, they made an average of two years’ progress.