The Government must rule out opening any more charter schools, as the first of the experimental schools has just been told it is closing, the Green Party said today. The Minister of Education Hekia Parata has today given Whangaruru School in Northland a month to respond to her decision to close the school. A further 26 charter schools have applied to open in 2017. “The experience of the children who were experimented on in Northland should never be allowed to...

The Government’s new Education bill appears to continue its moves to privatise New Zealand’s public education system, the Green Party says. The Government today released the Education Legislation Bill, which makes several changes including creating new types of charter schools and paving the way for principals to take over the management of other schools in what appears to be a new franchise-type arrangement. “Schools are not businesses, they are part of their community. New Zealanders don’t want their schools run...

Comments made by the Minister of Education on Q and A today show she is in denial about the real impacts of poverty on children's learning, said the Green Party today. “Any review of the decile system must focus on creating equity - not measuring achievement of children and then blaming schools under pressure,” said Green Party education spokesperson Catherine Delahunty. "The Minister is reviewing the decile system and quoting a low statistic on poverty impacts from the OECD, which is...

The Government must make safe cycling around schools a priority, following new data that shows the number of children who cycle to school has dropped to just 2 percent, the Green Party said. The 25 Years of New Zealand Travel: New Zealand Household Travel 1989-2014 report shows that the percentage of children cycling to school has dropped from 12 percent in 1989 to 2 percent in 2014, and the number who walk to school has dropped from 42 percent to...

New information on Gloriavale Christian Community School shows that they are teaching a Victorian-era agenda of domestic servitude that should not be funded by the Government, the Green Party revealed today.

National’s own fiscals confirm it plans big cuts to health and education, the Green Party said today. “National’s fiscals confirm the Green Party’s and BERL’s independent analysis that there will be sizeable cuts to health and education services,” Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman said today. “National will be cutting the education and health budgets by $1.5 billion which is around the size it plans to allocate for tax cuts, if they ever come. “With less than two weeks to go...