A NZ education union claims $63 million in cuts to schools...

A NZ Education Union claims schools facing $63 million in cuts to schools...



The Post Primary Teachers Association claims secondary schools are facing $63 million in cuts, while having to pay more for KiwiSaver contributions.





A NZ teachers' union claims secondary schools are facing $63 million in cuts, while having to pay more for KiwiSaver contributions.



Post Primary Teachers Association President Robin Duff says the Government has been sly in saying education would get more funding, when in reality money is being stripped from schools.



He says schools also face being stripped of $24 million in the guise of quarterly funding.



Mr Duff says there needs to be clarity around exactly where the cuts are going to be made.



The Government has claimed that there would not be any cuts to health or education. Are they now telling porkies to New Zealand?

Price on Marshall - a sneaky journo from a NZ Sunday paper...

Image via CrunchBase


Price on Marshall...

Lawyer Steven Price writes:

I have been contacted by a student at Victoria University who said he was approached by the Sunday Star-Times’ Jonathan Marshall at university last week, on the hunt for information about the 18-year-old at the centre of the Darren Hughes incident.

He said Marshall asked him to go to a university office and pretend to be a long-lost friend of the 18-year-old and ask for his class timetable. The student refused, saying this was a “morally bankrupt” thing to do, and good on him.

If true that would represent a new low in an already tarnished journalistic career. Marshall's style of tabloid journalism is the sort we associate with UK red-tops like The Sun. It's a style I don't particularly like.

Price continues:

I note the Press Council’s principle on subterfuge states:

The use of deceit and subterfuge can only be condoned in cases when the information sought is in the public interest and cannot be obtained by any other means.

I don’t think there can be much doubt that Marshall was trying to use deceit and subterfuge here, even if he was enlisting someone else to do the actual dirty work. Was it, then, really in the public interest? And mightn’t there be other ways of getting this information?

Price also reports that Marshall has denied engaging in any such activity, and that Marshall's editor is backing him up to the hilt. So whose version of events is true?

And why is the SST editor so confident there has been no wrongdoing? Has he spoken to the person who made the allegation?

Or is he just reflexively protecting his prized asset? Just as he weekly defends Michael Laws for writing indefensible hate-filled dross because it helps to sell papers?

True or false? Not surprising some would suggest.

Related articles

• Marshall enjoying VCU's run to Final Four (mlb.mlb.com)
• Marshall may face fines, suspension (3news.co.nz)

Job cutbacks at Tertiary Education Commission in NZ described as shocking...

Image via WikipediaThe number of jobs to be scrapped at the Tertiary Education Commission in New Zealand have been described as shocking by the Public Service  Association. The Government's policy is to cap public service jobs, not to slash  numbers. So what the hell is going on here?

A review carried out by private consultants Deloite,  who administer funding for tertiary education, have claimed the commission is hindered  by its structure and lack of strategic capability. It is after all a public service.

While it proposes to create 39 new jobs, it proposes to slash 80 of the existing jobs at the TEC.

The PSA national secretary, Brenda Pilott, says staff are shocked at the size of the cuts and fear their  inability to maintain the workload if the cuts go ahead, which they undoubtably will.

This may be a deliberate tactic to enable further cutbacks in future.

This Government has no credibility at all!

An invitation to new readers and commenters...

Image by badjonni via Flickr

An invitation to new readers and commenters...

This is a short post to communicate to commenters  if you are a non-English first speaker and writer.




If you use my posts to assist you in your education and to further your knowledge of the English language and would like further help, please leave me your website URL or email address. I would be pleased to help.

I would also hope you have the time to read my other blogsites. Please go to my profile to obtain the URL's.

I hope you enjoy reading my posts. Try another site:http://huttriver.blog.co.uk/

Related articles

• University favours ICT for effective English teaching (thehindu.com)
• When Going Global Meant Studying English (socyberty.com)
• English tests for spouses may breach human rights, UK told (guardian.co.uk)
• Chile's drive for English faces first test (guardian.co.uk)
• New Penn State Online Program Prepares English Language Teachers (prweb.com)

NZ public private partnerships policy doubts

Image via Wikipedia

Govt's public private partnership policy  doubts...


A lack of analysts and suppliers are fuelling doubts surrounding the need for public private partnerships



Public projects worth more than $25 million have to consider the option of a public private partnership, but there are doubts surrounding the need for them in New Zealand.



Massey University public policy director Stuart Birkes says New Zealand may not have enough analysts and suppliers to make it worthwhile. He says it's unlikely there will so be much competition as we are such a small country.


Pushing the proverbial uphill, some claim!


National Government credibilty  beginning to peel off.


What next John key?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Europe's IMI Sets Pace for Public/Private Partnerships in Pharmaceutical Development (thoughtleaderselect.wordpress.com)
• Craig Newmark: More support for veterans via public/private partnership with the VA (huffingtonpost.com)
• More support for veterans via public/private partnership with the VA (cnewmark.com)
• Christie signs bill on public-private partnerships (philly.com)
• Port Manatee's Second Container Crane Arrives (eon.businesswire.com)
• Make Pakistan Railways profitable: Senate body (teabreak.pk)
• Balfour Beatty Campus Solutions and Capstone Development Corp. Break Ground on Student Housing Public-Private Partnership at Florida Atlantic University (eon.businesswire.com)
• Balfour Beatty Capital Group enters into On-Campus Student Housing Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Project (eon.businesswire.com)