By George It is common knowledge that historically Maori did not have a written language. What is a fact is that their written language was developed in or around 1815. Thomas Kendall, an early missionary, travelled from New Zealand with Ngapuhi chief Hongi Hika to England where they met linguist
By Alwyn Poole More hard evidence that we are failing our youth – very badly indeed. With absolutely no fanfare the Ministry of Education has recently released the statistics for 2018 school leavers who have attained our highest school qualification – University Entrance. This is the best check of the effectiveness and
In this week’s Fireside Chat, Dennis addresses the Los Angeles Times’ critiques of PragerU. Two popular criticisms: PragerU “indoctrinates” viewers and PragerU “is not a real university.”
ACT Party Press Release: “Reports that one third of students benefiting from the Fees Free scheme failed to complete even one course confirms the scheme is the kind of waste New Zealand cannot afford in worsening economic conditions,” according to ACT Leader David Seymour. “ACT has opposed the scheme consistently
National party Press Release: News that a principal was awarded contracts with the Ministry of Education worth hundreds of thousands of dollars while under investigation for sleeping naked with students needs an independent investigation, National’s Education spokesperson Nikki Kaye says. “The Teaching Council Disciplinary Tribunal recently cancelled Principal Uenuku
ACT Party Press Release: “The revelation that a Ministry of Education contractor was paid $500,000 without having any contact with students is yet another reason to downsize our education bureaucracy and free up resources to pay teachers more”, ACT Leader David Seymour says. “It is also deeply ironic that
This government targeted child welfare right from the get go. Ardern campaigned on fixing child “poverdy” saying “ let’s do this” and introducing a families package effective from 1 July 2018 that promised families would be better off. “By 2020/21, approximately 385,000 families with dependent children will be
University of Sydney Associate Professor Salvatore Babones says Chinese students choose Australia over other countries for their education because “our standards are lower”. If you have a great Youtube or Vimeo video to share send it to videos@thebfd.co.nz
Remember the told-you-so hilarity that swept the internet last year, when it was claimed that a “female-led construction company” was responsible for a bridge collapse in Florida? Although the meme was wrong in many respects, there was a core of relevance to the story: companies responsible for
Free Speech Coalition Press Release: The Free Speech Coalition urges the University of Canterbury to resist bullying calls to suppress student freedom of speech. As an arm of the state, Canterbury is bound to uphold the freedom of speech assured by the NZ Bill of Rights Act. As a university
Not only do New Zealanders have to deal with the farce of their local councils jumping onto the Chicken Little Climate Emergency Bandwagon, but now Lincoln University has jumped in gumboots and all as well! In a press release yesterday, Lincoln University stated that it wholeheartedly supports its students’ association
Many many years ago, I was partly involved in organising free lunches at a local school. The school was in a very poor area, the kids were coming to school hungry and we all know that hungry kids don’t learn. There were bakeries around that used to send the
Some years back, I was walking down the street when I was confronted with that scourge of the modern urban landscape: the Intersection ‘Honkers’. You know the ones: the invariably lefty activists (righties are presumably too busy actually working to be able to stand on street corners all day) forming
As Clive Hamilton argues in his book Silent Invasion, Australian institutions at all levels have been shockingly blind to the creeping threat of communist China. Successive governments, business, academia, even local councils, have been too dazzled by the lure of “Belt and Road Initiative” money to stop and give even
NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge says “any Australian education institute that’s got a formal arrangement with the Confucius Institute should come under vastly closer scrutiny”.
