John Key shared this. Which ties in nicely with the Sitech Science trolley coming online See below for details or leave a comment if your interested in finding out more or email me direct .
PROMOTING SCIENCE
New Zealand’s success rests on our ability to make the best use of our scientific expertise. Yet the achievements of our scientists often go unrecognised.
That’s why, today, I was pleased to launch the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. The prizes were another election promise. The Government will provide $1 million a year across five prizes to help lift the prestige of science and attract more young people into science careers.
There will be five categories of prizes:
The Prime Minister’s Science Prize – $500,000
The Prime Minister’s MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year Prize – $150,000
The Prime Minister’s Future Scientist Prize – $50,000
The Prime Minister’s Science Teacher Prize – $50,000 to the teacher and $100,000 to their school
The Prime Minister’s Science Media Communications Prize – $150,000
I recieved the John Keynote today and education was mentioned quite a bit:
Firstly he says:
I had fun this morning meeting the children at Glen Taylor School in Auckland with Education Minister Anne Tolley. We were there to launch National Education Standards in reading, writing, and maths.
Introducing National Standards was one of our major election policies. They will lift achievement levels for children in primary and intermediate schools, and report children’s progress on literacy and numeracy to parents in plain English twice a year.
As many as one-in-five children are not getting the reading, writing, and maths skills they need to succeed. National Standards will help identify those children early so they get more help. The Government is providing $36 million over four years to support schools to introduce the new standards.
I’m really not sure where I stand on National Standards. The theory sounds great but it has huge potential for collateral damage. By which I mean misrepresentation of schools; there is no indication in results of the effort and skill or classroom practitioners. How much is genes and how much is solid education. There is potential for breeding eliteism (showever you spell it) If a school gets a reputation of high achieving then the motivated parents with the gifted and talented off spring will gravitate toward those institution, thus feeding the reputation by providing highly motivated, scholastically blessed, students.
One of the Education stories of the day was reported on National Radio this morning . School Uniforms pricing and policy is being called into question. Several news blogs and news sites are running the story.
It comes at an interesting time for me as last Sunday a friend of mine was talking about the cost of their kids school uniform as being upward of $700. I thought about this wondered if they had their numbers wrong but on the radio this morning I discover that the cost of a school skirt could be upward of $100! That total bill appears quite enormous. Then I got thinking about the fact that school is said to be "free at the point of delivery". Hmmmm…. I think not.
With the cost of school uniform being… $700. Yearly fees being $500, stationery levy being $50 it all too soon mounting up. And I fear I am only touching the surface.
What areas of ‘voluntary contribution’ have I missed?
I consider the school ski trip and the Japanese lessons with the specialist tutor after hours or the violin practise at 3pm on a Wednesday to be areas where parents have a genuine choice as to whether they opt in or out.
But what about the rest?
I must ask around what a parent has to pay. I was wondering how much it would be for where you are? And what categories that comes under?
On Tuesday the Gisborne Herald reported Anne Tolley ’s appointment to Minister of Education. I for one am delighted to welcome in a new Minister of Education.
I understand that there is a general uneasiness aobuth the National Parties policy as to national exams. But their there was a catagorical statement that there were to be no national exams for primary students .
However the following does state the objective in broad strokes:
Clear National Standards: Set national standards in reading, writing and numeracy. The standards will describe all the things children should be able to do by a particular age or year at school. They will be defined by benchmarks in a range of tests.
Effective Assessment: Require primary schools to use assessment programmes that compare the progress of their students with other students across the country. Schools will choose from a range of tests, but there won’t be national exams.
Upfront Reporting: Give parents the right to see all assessment information, and to get regular reports about their child’s progress towards national standards. Schools will also have to report each year on the whole school’s performance against national standards.
We shall have to see where the priorites lie when the policies start rolling. I for one am in favour of a more vigorous assessment policy. There has to be an equilibrium between the UK league table idea and the rigid flexibility focused on "methodology".
So my question is:
Is the National policy on education percieved by the teaching profession as a positive or negative?
Then I got thinking about the fact that school is said to be "free at the point of delivery". Hmmmm…. I think not.
On Tuesday the 
