Category: Education
A nation’s future is determined by the vision of its leadership. That is essentially the message that Taranaki born Stephen Jennings, one of country's most successful global entrepreneurs, delivered when he returned to New Zealand last month to present a keynote address for the New Zealand Initiative.
It’s great to be back in Auckland. I studied economics here in the ‘80s and I’m grateful to Auckland University for sparking my interest in how markets and institutions really work. The windsurfing was pretty good as well. As a newly minted economist I lived in Wellington for eight years working at the Treasury...
Parents have always gone to great lengths to impress on their children that education is the key to the future. According to this age old wisdom, those who are well educated can look forward to good jobs and higher wages.
Everybody loves complaining about education; either theirs, or more typically, someone else’s. But things do rather come to a head when politicians spot a voting opportunity.
While David Cameron has high aspirations for a united Britain, things are very different in New Zealand. Here, successive Prime Ministers have turned their backs on equality under the law, focussing instead on appeasement policies that divide our country along racial lines.
Last week a fifteen year old schoolgirl created an uproar in the education sector when she dared to publicly criticise the teaching profession. Asked to “write a persuasive speech” about something year 10 students had strong opinions on, Anela Pritchard of Napier Girls’ High School wrote about the school system and teachers.
The reality is that increased funding during the past 20 to 30 years, in Australia and overseas, has not led to stronger outcomes. What is required is a new model of schooling based on the right balance between competition, choice, autonomy and accountability.
The Human Rights Commission has been a strong defender of the public’s right to the freedom of expression in New Zealand. It is therefore ironic that it has now created a permanent register which “names and shames” anyone who speaks out on the thorny issue of race relations, whose published opinions they deem to be negative.
There will always be individuals striving for greater personal power and control over others, at any cost. So when I read that Treaty of Waitangi workshops have been offered to new immigrants for the last 25 years, I’m curious.
Good policies do not have international borders. What works in one country, can often be successfully adapted and used in another. For policy analysts, general elections provide a rich hunting ground for cutting edge policy options - and the United Kingdom’s 2015 general election on May 7 is no exception.
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