Nick Smith National Education Spokesperson

23 November 2001

Pay or Delay, Smith tells Govt on NCEA

Students will be the big losers if the Government tries to implement the new school qualification system, NCEA, on the cheap, says Opposition Education spokesperson Nick Smith.

This follows today's teacher announcement that no further work will be undertaken on the NCEA until the teachers' contract negotiations are concluded.

"The Government faces the choice of pay or delay. It cannot expect teachers to do the extra work required for the new qualification for nothing. It must not allow students' qualifications to be messed up again next year. If the Government cannot find the money to properly implement the new qualification next year, it should delay implementation until 2003."

"The Government has only itself to blame over the on going school disruption. In Opposition, Labour cynically raised huge expectations amongst teachers by criticising National's teacher pay settlements as mean.

"Now it is offering teachers less in pay and more in work which has inevitably led to disruption. The Government must settle the contract or postpone implementation of the NCEA," says Nick Smith.

Ends

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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>>