After school, she logs on to Study Ladder. She nails the homework fairly quickly, but it doesn't take long for me to hear the annoying accent of the ever-perky DanTDM.

She can't help herself. She'd play Minecraft online all day if we let her. Hey, she's a kid, and kids need supervision. So do teenagers.

This week our Minister of Education dropped a hell of a clanger. Hekia Parata announced that students would soon have the option of signing up to an "accredited online learning provider" instead of turning up to school. According to the minister, it's time for New Zealand kids to "move into the digital age."

Newsflash. They already are. It's everywhere. Unavoidable. You're soaking in it.

Cyber-schools. Stay-at-home-online-learning. COOL — community of online learning — is the hip new acronym.

I can see the appeal. Avoiding the Auckland motorway would be cool. As a person who works from home (and most parents don't), I can imagine me and my child bonding after a late breakfast, and then shuffling off to our respective computers, still in our PJs. We could have lunch together and go for little walks down the beach, in between her virtual math and cyber science.

Yeah, right.

Much as I love my daughter, I've got stuff to do. And while there are definitely parents more useless than me, I wouldn't be much chop even as a supervisor. When a lot of grown-ups aren't that hot at "self-pacing," you can't expect teenagers to be.

My mum is a digi-kuia. But even she reckons we need to get kids off devices, that school isn't just about the academics. She's got a point. Continue reading

• Moana Maniapoto — Ngati Tuwharetoa / Tuhourangi / Ngati Pikiao | MNZM — is an Auckland-based singer-songwriter and documentary maker

Br Sir Patrick is leaving the New Zealand Catholic Education Office after 22 years at the helm.

Speakers at the function included Education Minister Hekia Parata and Cardinal John Dew.

Ms Parata praised Br Sir Patrick's "immense contribution to education in New Zealand".

Continue reading

St Michael's Catholic School lost $15,000 in funding annually as a result of its being changed from decile three to decile four.

It was one of many schools hit by a decile review starting in 2014.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has reportedly made preliminary plans to ditch the decile scheme.

Rather, the focus would be on the needs of individual pre-schoolers and children.

The risk factors that might instead be used to calculate a student's funding include whether they have parents who've been to prison, been on welfare for a long period, or if the mother has no formal qualifications.

St Michael's principal Shelley Fitness said the loss of funding has hit the budget hard, but the school has ensured the level of education didn't change.

Ms Fitness said the blow has been softened by the generous support of Ngati Whakaue, but the school has still felt an impact.

"It's more affected things for our teachers. We now consider more what we're doing for professional development."

However, the decile system is not an inaccurate way to allocate funds to schools, Ms Fitness said, particularly because it's so difficult to measure.

"As far as we can see, there's been very little change in our community.

"We had the same clientele as the year before - the same kids, the same programmes - we just had to run it all on less money, so [the decile change] just didn't make sense to us."

The Secondary Principals' Association has said the changes along the lines suggested by Ms Parata could be a good thing.

But it is warning some protections would need to be put in place for children if the changes were to go ahead.

President Sandy Pasley, who is also principal of Auckland's Baradene College, said the changes would stop parents judging schools by their decile ratings.

But she said children would need to be guarded against stigma from schools and from other students.

Sources

• New Zealand Herald
• NewstalkZB
• Image: St Michael's Catholic School

The minster of education Hekia Parata has made a commitment to resolving this issue in the term of the present government.

But she has not said how she expects to resolve it and warns that there were many competing demands for Government money.

Association of Proprietors of Integrated Schools chief executive Pat Lynch said its members wanted the Government to pay for any future changes.

"Ultimately, the focus of the conversations we're having with Government, is that in principle the Crown agrees that when the Crown changes the curriculum requirements, which have a capital expenditure component, that the Crown says, look that's our cost."

Brother Lynch said proprietors also wanted the Government to pay off some of the $200 million they had borrowed over the years for capital works on their schools.

He would not say how much they wanted, but reducing the sum would allow proprietors to lower the fee known as an attendance due that they charge parents to cover the debt.

"We're saying to the Government, can we have some understanding that some of that money can be paid back, because we'd like to give some of that money back to the banks, so we can lower attendance dues for parents."

Source

• Radio New Zeland
• Image: St-Thereas.school.nz

Christchurch mother Tanya Jacob and the Secular Education Network are pressing for changes to the law in this regard.

They have laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.

Ms Jacob said her son felt discriminated against and was made to wash dishes when he opted out of religious instruction at his school.

Section 78 of the Education Act, 1964, allows up to one hour a week or 20 hours a year of religious instruction in state schools, at times when the school is deemed to be closed.

This has to be approved by the school's board of trustees after consultation with their principal.

Stuff.co.nz reported Ms Parata saying that if parents don't want to have their children going to a school that offers religious instruction, then they can choose another school.

Christianity was where New Zealand's "traditional history" came from, she said.

"The country as a whole at a public national level still has a view about the place of that in our society."

Ms Parata predicted the role of religion in education could eventually change, as the population "decides that that is what it wants to happen".

The majority of schools would have to have a problem in this area, before she would consider any kind of review.

Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins said religion in schools was a "vexed area" and he would be open to a review.

A SEN survey that gained 1663 responses from 1833 New Zealand state primary and intermediate schools found that 37.7 per cent offered religious instruction.

Some schools are adopting an "opt-in" approach for religious instruction, rather than the traditional "opt-out" approach, to avoid controversy.

Sources

• Stuff.co.nz
• The Press
• Education Act section 78
• Image: Radio Live

The Educational Institute, the Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools and the Catholic Principals' Association also supported the move. Continue reading

Hon Hekia Parata, the Minister of Education and Lesley Longstone, the Secretary of Education are among those address delegates as well as overseas keynote speakers Michael Holman (UK) and Megan McKenna (USA).

A feature of the convention is the technology used in schools by students and teachers to enhance learning.

The Catholic Education Convention is the triennial gathering of all NZ Catholic Schools. There are 238 Catholic Schools, 4,000 teachers within the network across the country educating 66,000 students.

The Convention runs from 8-10 August at the Wellington Convention Centre.

Source

• Catholic.org.nz
• Image: Conference.co.nz

"Our students are over-represented in the tail, we have 6 per cent Pasifika and 20 per cent Maori in our college. We have worked hard for a lot of years to keep them all moving along. I see a lot of what is happening at the moment is going to be really unhelpful to their continuing to believe that they can achieve".

She was one of about 30 board chairmen and women and principals who were at the Mana Education Centre in Porirua last Thursday to express questions and concerns to Education Minister Hekia Parata.

Others at the meeting said achievement tables tended to play to the fears and prejudices people already had, and the data was not valid because it could not be compared effectively between schools.

The Dominion Post has asked schools across the Wellington region to release the information they were required to send to the Education Ministry about the number of pupils at, above, below or well below national standards in reading, writing and maths.

The ministry declined a request for the data, but acting senior manager Dennis Cribb said individual schools could be approached.

About 10 have already responded with information and others have indicated their data will be forthcoming.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Stuff.co.nz