I don’t normally bother to look at the spam that the AA sends out once a month but for some reason today I opened it.

A little bit down the page is this ad:

This is completely crazy that a government funded education institute is offering discounts to AA members. It just doesn’t seem right. In my opinion everyone should be paying the same for publicly education not given discounts for driving carbon polluting vehicles.

Now before someone screams that I did not check the fine print, here it is:

* ‘Qualifying Courses’ means each course made available to ‘Domestic Students’ for enrolment by the Polytechnic that is Government (EFTS) funded through the Polytechnic. For clarity, this excludes the ‘full fee’ and ‘trades training’ courses as defined by the Polytechnic and other courses that may already be subject to a special promotion as defined by the Polytechnic and at the Polytechnic’s discretion. For more information about qualifying courses call the Open Polytechnic on toll free 0508 650 200. Open Polytechnic’s $50.00 annual administration fee may apply.

I sure hope someone picks up on this. Most stupid thing I have seen in a long time.

BTW AA in NZ stands for Automobile Association (called AAA elsewhere), Not Alcoholics Anonymous

The Vice-Chancellor of Auckland University has an interesting article in the Herald today about education funding:

Over the last thirty years, our educational institutions have created a $2.3 billion per annum export education industry – now the fifth largest export earner in the country. We can surely do it again with research.

So what would I do to bring about this change?

I would invest in education, valuing our teachers – from pre-school to professors – as the professionals they truly are. I would focus on supporting our most able students to continue on to postgraduate study and research careers, rather than terminating the very scholarships that keep our best doctoral students in New Zealand, as the government has recently done.

The removal of the highest value scholarships for PhD students by the incoming National government was an incredibly silly thing to do.

Look at the number and value of scholarships available to Australians and New Zealanders provided by the Australian Government. Look at the way they are offering massive incentives to our young doctors to move to the lucky country. It is little wonder we have such a big brain drain when our smartest are being snatched by our neighbour. And it will require more than a rugby team and national pride to keep them here.

Sadly New Zealand has been reducing its investment in the tertiary education of each student for 20 years, choosing instead to directly support students, most recently with interest free loans. This must inevitably compromise the quality of education and research at a time when other countries are investing heavily in these areas.

Interest free student loans are a good thing for supporting students and giving them opportunities they would have been unable to otherwise afford. However, as I blogged a few days ago there needs to be much tighter controls on who is allowed at university to reduce wasteful spending on those who are never going to complete their degree.

I would concentrate our research investment on “blue skies” projects, the kind that will create radical innovation, and with it undreamt-of opportunities.

After all, the single most important technology in New Zealand’s history, refrigeration, came out not because of attempts to preserve dairy and meat products so they could be exported – though that was what it achieved – but rather from fundamental university research on the thermodynamics of expanding gases.

At the moment a lot of new products come out of private enterprise in New Zealand. Most of these products are not mainstream consumer products either but rather for specialised industry. However, little of these products are information sciences based, instead they are physical products. Investing in information sciences based research at university and CRI level makes sense. If we want to succeed in the knowledge economy we must first join it (by getting into the top half and higher of the OECD averages) then we must actively lead the way in new ventures in the economy and not just follow what others are doing. How about getting past web 2.0 and start thinking about cloud 3.0?

Students’ Associations appear to be up in arms about New Zealand universities kicking out students who perform poorly.

From the Stuff.co.nz article:

Financially stressed universities have revealed they will significantly increase the number of students who are shown the door, saying they only want “motivated students”.

The university has introduced a policy in which any student whose grade point average is less than 1.5, or who has not passed half or more of their courses will have their progress automatically reviewed. Grade point averages are ranked up to nine.

Student associations were concerned that toughening up admission requirements went against New Zealanders’ sense of fairness and their sentiment that people should be given a “fair go”.

Students are already given a fair go. They are given a fair go through doing well in the exams before getting into university or in their first semester. If they do not take their fair go to do well in their exams through study then they should be shown the door. If they are not then the education system in New Zealand becomes nothing more than people paying for the piece of paper they get after three years and not earning it through hard work. This cheapens the quality, value and prestige of the institute so good on them for taking a tough stance.

There is a big problem with attitude amongst students at New Zealand universities many students have the attitude that C’s get degrees. At the moment that is true. But it shouldn’t be. Passing with a GPA of 1.5 is hardly passing – it is the equivalent of 4 C- and 4 C grades. A pass yes. Success no. At a minimum to get into post-graduate study you need a GPA of 6.0 (B+ average). To pass a degree you should have to maintain an average of 3.0 (C+) throughout your study. This would allow you to do bad on those papers you are naturally not good at, but at the same time provide enough of a challenge for you to work hard at those that you are good at.

Everyone should be given a chance to get into university and do their best. But university is not for everyone and once you have been given your fair go and have not succeeded you should give up your space for the next person – this is a fair system.

Gordon Campbell of Scoop calls the cuts: Anne Tolley’s 19th century approach to education

Remember National’s election promise to return New Zealand to the top half of the OECD tables? In government, its moves in education seem motivated more by a desire to return New Zealand to the golden age of Victorianism – when the three “R”s and a stern testing regime were seen to be all that a young lad or girl really needed.

From a New Zealand perspective, one aspect of the reaction to the Cambridge University report in Britain has been particularly interesting. There has been a striking level of support from the Conservative Party for the retention of an expert advisory service across the entire curriculum.The Tories are doing so not instead of a concentration on the teaching of reading and writing – but because they believe the broad-based approach actually makes the task of teaching reading and writing skills much more effective. Here for instance is the shadow Tory education Minister Michael Gove, writing in the British press earlier this week :

“A broad and demanding curriculum – far from undermining reading, writing and arithmetic – reinforces attainment in these core skills. “Perhaps Education Minister Anne Tolley should be talking more to her British counterpart. Or at least explaining why she and her Tory colleague are treating the evidence on teaching outcomes so differently.

Clearly, the decision to narrow the scope of the advisory service available to our teachers makes no educational sense. It is being done in the service of a national testing regime at primary level that also makes little educational sense. This is penny pinching and political rhetoric, at the expense of our children and their future. The money at stake – $10 million – is a fraction of the amount that the government is planning to spend on the Rugby World Cup. Well, the battle of Waterloo may have been won on the playing fields of Eton. But an emphasis on winning at rugby – and a Victorian Age type of education system – will be of little use against the challenges we face from globalization.

And Catherine Delahunty at Frog Blog: The Three Rs”: Reduce, Regiment, and Ruin our public education system

It wasn’t much fun waking up this morning to the news that the Ministry of Education will no longer be providing advice to primary schools on arts, science, technology, or physical education – nothing in fact, except the “three Rs”: reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. This latest assault on the public education system by the National Government is just plain stupid.

It also heralds the undoing of a robust curriculum. There is no educational justification for such a narrow focus, when all the evidence points to the importance of a holistic educational experience at primary school level.

The limitation of Ministry of Education support to literacy and numeracy is clearly to assist with the implementation of the new National Standards (which are due to be announced tomorrow, according to Education Minister Anne Tolley.

Presumably, the Minister thinks literacy and numeracy are not developed in parallel with the core subjects by subjects like art, science, and technology. Perhaps she hasn’t been visiting schools and seeing the interconnections between subjects in action like I have. She certainly hasn’t been listening to her counterpart in the British Tories, Conservative Education Spokesperson Michael Gove, who says

“a broad and demanding curriculum – far from undermining reading, writing and arithmetic – reinforces attainment in these core skills.”

You can drive a truck through her logic but I get the feeling that the Minister’s ideological advisers don’t care. They have a plan which involves selling the idea that the “three Rs” are somehow learned in little boxes taught separately from other topics, and that all children learn in exactly the same way.

Through this same cut, we have now lost all the Sustainability Advisors who survived, just, the cuts to the Enviroschools Budget earlier this year.

Under this Government, it seems that “three Rs” are now Reducing the curriculum, Regimenting the assessment processes, and Ruining opportunities for our children.

My jaw dropped this morning when I read this information posted by a friend this morning on facebook.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/10/22/1245ce3b9622

Primary schools have been told that art, PE and science are to take a back seat to the three Rs.

The Ministry of Education has told schools they will get no extra help next year to teach subjects other than reading, writing and mathematics.

The ministry says support services for schools that it funds through various advisors will now focus on a smaller number of critical priorities, including literacy and numeracy, as well as help implement the Government’s national standards policy.

Teaching groups say the move is short-sighted, and the first sign of how national standards will affect schools and children.

This move is going to a major affect on the intelligence of our young people. Yes you need Reading, Writing, and Mathematics they are fundamental skills in being able to engage with the world. For instance you are currently reading a blog, that I have written, and when you go to the shops later today you will need mathematics to know how much money you can afford to spend. You use these three primary skills in every situation of every day.

However, you also use PE, Science, and Art just as much. And they are equally as important to a child’s intellectual development. PE lets students explore the world, learn how to run, catch, and have fun, it promotes good exercise and living a balanced healthy life. In the process it gets much needed oxygen into the body, and the poisons from the foods we eat out so that we can focus better and all round be a lot healthier. Without PE we are not going to learn inside the classroom very well.

Art. One of the defining characteristics of our generation is our individuality. And we primarily express that through art. Art is not about painting, drawing or scribbling, it is about expression and gaining a cultural understanding of the world around us. Through art our society changes and improves. Art allows us to photograph the past so we can learn from our mistakes, it allows us to plan, think, and see things before we actually have them in real life, like plans for a building. Art is a key part of a child’s development it enables them to mature. Forget about writing for a second, if a picture is worth a thousand words we should be able to read that to.

Finally science. Where do I start, science is the key to the world. Mathematics may be the fundamental language of the universe. But without science mathematics is simply numbers with no meaning or context. Science gives numbers meaning it explains how things are related. It explains how we came to be, why things are the way they are, and can even predict the future. For instance if I know a car is traveling at a certain speed and it needs to stop at a certain point, and its brakes are not powerful enough to stop it from that speed in that time then I can tell you now through science, physics, and the use of maths that it will not be able to stop.

Reading, Writing, and Mathematics are primary skills our children need to learn, but there is no point in giving child the skills and the tools to do things, without the context within to use them. What is the point of learning algebra if you are not going to be given any real life situation (through science) of its application.

The majority of people learn best through example, demonstration, and hands on learning. The government is sending us back to the dark ages where what is said is absolute truth, you rote learn everything, and never challenge the absolute truth. This is a sad day for New Zealand education.

I was disgusted to read in the Herald earlier this week the actions of the New Zealand Immigration service in blocking the access of some international students to attend school. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10586338

Neha, 16, from Kelston Girls’ College, and Nelisha, 13, of Bruce McLaren Intermediate School in Henderson, have been barred from school since June 10, when their mother’s work permit ran out.

Rehana Nazrin Singh, 38, a residential care worker, is appealing against the Immigration New Zealand decision not to renew it.

While the appeal is pending, she has been granted a visitor’s permit.

But her daughters have not been issued with student permits, so cannot go to school.

So lets get the facts clear right at the start, the students were attending school legally and circumstances beyond their control have prevented them from being able to.

Immigration NZ was yesterday unable to say how many children were in the same position.

This is not an isolate incident?

But Kelston Girls’ College said it had two other cases, involving students from the Philippines and Fiji.

An Auckland immigration adviser, Tika Ram, said he had three clients who were appealing against work permit decisions that also affected school-age children.

One school has in total three cases, and an adviser also have three clients, given that in NZ there are thousands of advisers and at around 1,000 schools that must mean a lot of students are being denied their right to education.

Kelston Girls’ principal Linda Fox said immigration law prevented schools from enrolling foreigners who did not have students’ permits.

My first reaction is fair enough, their parents have not paid taxes in NZ so why should they be able to access NZ schools. However, at the same time it costs no more to have an extra kid in a classroom so while the immigration status is being debated in the courts at least let them learn.

“Schools are being put in an awkward situation by the immigration department and the Government. While our first desire is to teach students, the school faces big fines – which we cannot afford – if immigration officials find there are students being enrolled illegally,” Ms Fox said.

The situation is absurd and sad.

“It is totally unfair that the future of these students is being destroyed, and educational opportunities stopped, by some of our immigration rules.”

Bang on.

Ms Fox said she had appealed to Immigration to let students continue their studies “on humanitarian grounds”, but had not yet been advised of its decision.

There should be no need for appeal, while any immigration status is in dispute the children should be able to go to school.

She said Neha is doing NCEA Level 1 this year, without which she could not progress to Year 12 (form 6) if she returned to Fiji and would have to repeat a whole academic year.

So in other words the New Zealand Immigration service is putting someones entire future at risk?

Mr Ram, who is Mrs Singh’s immigration adviser, predicted Immigration NZ would decline many more work permit applications in the recession as more New Zealanders became available to fill job vacancies.

He warned that even more children could be kept from school because of current policy.

Time for a change in policy then?

From Monday, changes to immigration policy will allow children of migrant workers who lose their jobs within a 90-day trial period to qualify as domestic students while their parents remain legally in New Zealand.

But this does not apply to those who have been working longer than the three months.

This sounds great, however the situation here does not apply because the circumstances are different.

Acting Human Rights Chief Commissioner Judy McGregor said it was “entirely unacceptable” that children in New Zealand were being denied education.

“The right to education for children is a core human right here and internationally.”

Last month, TV One reported that an estimated 1100 Pacific Island children could not attend school because their parents were overstayers.

1,100 students is  a lot, more than a lot, and this needs to change. Maybe NZ needs to read the UN Rights of a child: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm

Article 28

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

That is right. Free and Available to all. Not based on some silly immigration policy.

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;

Available and Accessible to EVERY child.

(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

Encourage attendance. Not to block it.

Poor form Immigration NZ, poor form.

This is currently one of the new National Party billboards:

The question I have about this is that is it acceptable to make the exams so easy that anyone can pass. Isn’t the point of study and exams so that you can demonstrate that you know what you have studied? One could argue that the exams are too hard but if that is the case then why is the PPTA claiming the exams are too easy? (http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4683842a6442.html)

Who do you believe? The National Party or the teachers?

Here is an example of year 11 maths exam questions. A seven year old should be able to answer them all not a 16 year old.

1. 5 boys share a bag of 55 lollies. How many lollies does each boy get?

2. There were 60 cows inside a shed. 18 walked outside. How many cows were left inside the shed?

3. 38 x 6 = ?

4. David has 35 stamps. Bruce has 70 stamps. How many stamps do they have altogether?

For these ones they could use calculators:

5. Write these percentages as decimals: 34% 52% 8%

6. Write these decimals as fractions: 0.5 0.03 0.95

7. Betty got 13 of the 20 questions correct in a biology test. What percentage did Betty get?

8. Gary ate 25% of a cake. What fraction of the cake did he eat?

And my answers (all without a calculator):
1. 5 boys share a bag of 55 lollies. How many lollies does each boy get? 55/5 = 11.

2. There were 60 cows inside a shed. 18 walked outside. How many cows were left inside the shed? 60 – 18 = 42

3. 38 x 6 = ? 6 x 8 = 48 for the ones column, and 6 x 3 = 18 for the tens column, so 48 + 180 = 228

4. David has 35 stamps. Bruce has 70 stamps. How many stamps do they have altogether? 35 + 70 = 105

For these ones they could use calculators:

5. Write these percentages as decimals: 34% 52% 8% –> 0.34, 0.52, 0.08

6. Write these decimals as fractions: 0.5 0.03 0.95 –> 1/2, 3/100, 95/100 = 19/20

7. Betty got 13 of the 20 questions correct in a biology test. What percentage did Betty get? 65%

8. Gary ate 25% of a cake. What fraction of the cake did he eat? 1/4

Press Release: MASSEY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION FEDERATION

Massey University dumps on International Students

From 2009 all new International Students studying at Massey University will face an immediate 6 – 7% average increase in tuition fees and ongoing annual tuition fees increases due to a removal in fee Grand-parenting for International students.

Fee Grand-parenting of tuition fees for International Students ensures that students do not face tuition fee increases throughout their course. Massey University introduced fee Grand-parenting in 2005 to give International Students stability in their finances while they study.

“The decision by the Massey University Council last Friday to remove these protections for students’ financial wellbeing will severely hurt international students” says Albany Students’ Association (ASA) President, Brad Heap. “This decision was made entirely behind closed doors; students had no knowledge of this move and the University did not consult with a single student on the changes.”

“Massey University has decided to put profits before pastoral care of students and I find this disgraceful. You would expect the University to have a social conscience and protect their students not dump fee increases on them without consulting them,”said Heap.

MUSAF is committed to ensuring that the University treats all students as individuals and does not treat its International Students as ‘cash-cows’. MUSAF will continue to work with students across Massey University’s three campuses to ensure that the University actively consults with students and in the meantime urges Massey University Council to reverse its decision.

ENDS

Not much to say here.

Salient have a good series of blog post commentaries:

http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/nzusa-update/

http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/nzusa-update-2-the-nats-announce-policy-kinda-maybe/

http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/nzusa-day-three-morning-update-moderate-and-spurious-scandal-inside/

http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/nzusa-update-3-salient-barred-vuwsa-enraged-responsible-government-threatened/