The Government has appointed Epsom Girls Grammar School Principal, Margaret Bendall, to the Board of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey announced today.

The Authority provides qualifications quality assurance, assessment, and examination services in New Zealand and overseas. Mr Maharey said the Authority has some important new challenges ahead of it in the next few years and it is essential that the Board is composed of high calibre people committed to quality education.

"Margaret Bendall has an extensive career in education and has a record of leadership in the development of curriculum, teachers, and principals," Steve Maharey said. "She has been closely involved in the development of the National Certificate in Educational Achievement. I anticipate Mrs Bendall making a valuable contribution to the Board, particularly in terms of helping to oversee the Authority's implementation of the National Certificate in Educational Achievement," Steve Maharey said.

Mrs Bendall's appointment is for a four-year term commencing on 15 July.

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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>>