Colinxy: What Are Erica Stanford’s Education Reforms Really About?

And are NZ teachers correct about where the system is headed?

I’ll start with a confession: I am pleasantly surprised by Erica Stanford. Not because she is perfect, no minister is, but because she is the first Education Minister in decades willing to say the quiet part out loud:

Critical Pedagogy, the Neo‑Marxist backbone of our curriculum, has to go[i].

John Raine: Don’t Back Down on the Education Reforms, Erica Stanford

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) has circled its wagons and is mounting a noisy counterattack on Education Minister Erica Stanford’s much-needed Education Reforms [1].   Last year it was loud objection (still ongoing) to the new literacy and numeracy curricula, solid science learning, and a lessening in the focus on the Treaty of Waitangi required of School boards. Now it is the pushback on the new NZCE Year 12-13 schools’ qualification which will have compulsory exams in every subject.

Ryan Bridge: Old school is the best school

In education, old school is the best kind of school.

Secondary students will be forced to learn science, as well as maths and English, in the fifth form.

They'll be graded, not on merit or achieved or whatever, but A+ to E.

David Farrar: The maths results show why people hate the media

How many stories have you seen in the Media where some group is complaining about there being less of a focus on the Treaty of Waitangi in the education system? I’ve lost count, but it is scores and scores.

How many have you seen about the results of the maths acceleration trial?

Ani O"Brien: The best education news in years and the media buries it

Warning: This is a very frustrated and ranty article!

Sometimes this country feels allergic to good news, especially when that good news comes from a government our media class has decided must never be allowed a win. This week, Education Minister Erica Stanford released some of the most extraordinary education data New Zealand has seen in decades…students are making between one and two years of maths progress in just twelve weeks. It should have led every bulletin. It should have been the headline splashed across every front page. Erica Stanford should be being hoisted above shoulders and paraded through the streets as a heroine. Chris Hipkins would have thrown himself a parade if he had done anything except drive our education system into decline when he was in charge. What Stanford’s reforms are achieving is nothing short of extraordinary.

Damien Grant: Luxon's government is indistinguishable from its predecessors

On macro issues, Luxon's government is indistinguishable from its predecessors

A sip, sometimes a whiff, is enough. It is not necessary to consume the entire bottle to know its contents.

We need to talk about Christopher.

Roger Partridge: Rising risk of lift in literacy

The country’s education establishment has come out swinging. ‘Destructive,’ ‘weird,’ and ‘radical,’ are how the critics have described the Christopher Luxon-led Coalition Government’s education reform agenda.

Who could blame them for such strong language?