Hon Chris Carter

Minister of Education

7 March 2008

Media Statement
Minister Teams-up as “games master” Pasifika

Education Minister Chris Carter will be on the “Team Up” stall at this year’s Pasifika Festival to encourage parents and children to get involved in a range of fun learning activities.

“Pacific parents, like all parents, play a vital role in how their children learn,” Chris Carter says.

“They want to help their children achieve their dreams and goals and value the importance of education for their children. And they know it has to be a team effort if they want their children to succeed.”

Team-Up is a Ministry of Education programme providing information and inspiration for parents to help them get involved in their child’s learning. It highlights to parents that the everyday things they do really make a difference to their child's learning.

“Parent’s can help by nurturing their child's interest to learn,” says Chris Carter.

“You don’t have to know all the answers and it doesn’t have to be a full time job. It’s more about making the most of all those moments in a day when you can you can help them and their learning in lots of practical ways.

“It might be playing a game of cards, using the magnetic letters on the fridge or getting them to work out the cost of the grocery shopping.

“Team-up is all about showing that encouraging children’s creativity and capacity to learn new things can be done in all kinds of ways every day”.

Chris Carter will be at the Team-Up stall - an interactive fale (home) for parents and children - at the Pasifika Festival from 11.30 – 1pm tomorrow, where he will have a role as one of the Games Masters.

About Team-Up

Team-Up is a Ministry of Education programme providing information and inspiration for parents to help them get involved in their child’s learning. For more information visit: www.teamup.co.nz

ENDS

Gordon Campbell:
The Waihopai Three Acquittal (and East Jerusalem)

The acquittal of the Waihopai Three for their attack on the Waihopai spy base is as welcome as it is surprising. To succeed in court, one would have thought they would need to have proved a direct connection between the base near Blenheim and the war atrocities inside Iraq and/or the renditions occurring elsewhere – possible, but no simple matter – and moreover, that the property damage done was more than a symbolic act i.e. that the actions taken by the protesters went some way towards preventing, or mitigating the evil being committed.

While no one knows what goes on in the hearts of jurors, the motive behind the decision to acquit is likely to have been based on social grounds, as much as on points of law... More>>