education
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Discussion Paper | The Case for Character Skills
By Kieran Madden
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” – Martin Luther King Success early on in life is about…
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Catching the tide for “the lockdown generation”
By Rowan Light
As the COVID-19 pandemic grinds on, we must attend to the needs of our young people, our taiohi. “Taiohi” in…
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Educational hubs or babysitters clubs
By Kieran Madden
The Alert Level 3 announcement that schools would be opened was met with a collective sigh of relief from some…
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Vocational surgery required
By Kieran Madden
Our vocational educational system is on life support— haemorrhaging badly in desperate need of surgery. Four of New Zealand’s sixteen…
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The status of our own history
By Danielle van Dalen
While many of us are raised with storybook histories of pharaohs, kings, queens, and notable events from all over the…
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Learning Support funding should bridge to work
By Danielle van Dalen
School can be difficult for everyone, but for students with disabilities the difficulties are generally heightened. The Prime Minister acknowledged…
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Excessive tertiary education sends the wrong signals
By Kieran Madden
The higher education system is a colossal waste of time and money—far more about signaling to future employers than gaining…
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Changing the way we educate
By Danielle van Dalen
Nelson Mandela is credited with saying: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” It…
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Read our column on The Spinoff and RNZ
By Alex Penk
This week, Alex Penk and Julian Wood’s column Triumph or disaster? A guide to the minimum wage increase featured on The…
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Our politicians must learn what actually makes a difference in education
By Danielle van Dalen
I can clearly remember my favourite teacher. He was a jovial and portly history teacher, who would get incredibly excited…
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Supporting the village raising our children
By Danielle van Dalen
An African proverb claims that “it takes a village to raise a child.” Labour’s School Leavers’ Toolkit Policy seems an…
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Death to deciles
By Kieran Madden
The Government is about to drive school deciles out of town. Good riddance. What will replace the much-maligned decile system?…
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The future is not (only) digital
By Kieran Madden
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution” is upon us—the exponential rise in technology that is set to disrupt every aspect of our…
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‘Cash for class’ a bankrupt idea
By Guest Author
According to PISA, 42% of New Zealand students are skipping school at least once every two weeks. Why are kids…
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The trust trade-off
By Kieran Madden
The Government is going all in on its Social Investment strategy for fixing social ills, but the big data it…
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Our insecure future of work
By Kieran Madden
Many pinned Trump’s election and the Brexit vote as being fueled by people’s fear of losing their way of life….
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Sir John Graham Lecture 2016 | Achieving Change
Using evidence to empower educators and help students succeed Every parent, teacher, principal, policy expert, and education leader wants an…
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Free tertiary policy lacks precision
By Julian Wood
I never knew the “glory days” of tertiary education where everything was free. After high school I was ushered into…
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Social skills to pay the bills
By Kieran Madden
Modern workplaces are like preschool. Our schools and homes should be too. At preschool “children move from art projects to…
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Is education the great equaliser?
By Kieran Madden
Last week, New Zealand got a glowing report card from the OECD for our economic performance and the policies set…
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