Minister must explain the wasted millions

"Fee paying students must call on Tertiary Education Minister Steve Maharey to explain how he spent $15 million last year on radio sing-a-long studies," says National Party Education spokesman Bill English.

"Its time for some accountability over the waste of millions of dollars of much needed tertiary education funding.

"Last year Tairawhiti Polytechnic in Gisborne was paid $11 million of tertiary education money for handing out a waiata songbook to enrolled students who were asked to sing along with the songs on the radio.

"There is no qualification at the end of the course, which consists of five half hour lessons, broadcast each week, for eight weeks.

"Tairawhiti Polytechnic must have enrolled between eight and ten thousand people in Gisborne for this programme to have achieved over 2000 EFTS and $11 million in Government funding.

"Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke's Bay earned $4 million on the same programme 'He Waiata Ma Te Whanau' (songs for the whole family).

"There is no way of knowing whether the students did the course and nothing for them at the end of it," notes Mr English.

"I have no objection to people learning songs for cultural reasons, but for the taxpayer to be contributing $15 million towards it is ridiculous," he says.

"Steve Maharey has been talking about steering the tertiary system for the last five years. He has produced documents, strategies legislation and a new multi-million dollar Tertiary Education Commission. Now it's time for some accountability," says Mr English.

© 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>>