“The suggestion that National would scrap the new school qualifications and come up with a different option is crazy” said New Zealand First Education Spokesperson, Hon Brian Donnelly MP.

National brought in unit standards under Lockwood Smith. These were going to supersede the examination system. Instead, a two-tiered system developed which threatened to swamp secondary education.

The National Certificate of Education Achievement is the New Zealand First – National Coalition clean-up of the mess left by Lockwood Smith, and has received the support of the large majority of principals and teachers.

“For Mr Brownlee to now suggest a third new system in less than a decade shows how flakey National Party policy-making really is,” said Mr Donnelly.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>