Experienced educationalist Brendan Schollum, a former principal at Sacred Heart College in Auckland and the foundation principal at Aquinas College, Tauranga, is to travel to the Solomons in late September to work with and advise the archdiocese of Honiara’s education office. The education secretary for the archdiocese of Honiara, Cypriano Nuake, was in New Zealand Read more
When I was a child in the 1950s, my friends and I had two educations. We had school (which was not the big deal it is today), and we also had what I call a hunter-gather education. We played in mixed-age neighbourhood groups almost every day after school, often until dark. We played all weekend Read more
The Director of The Catholic Institute of Aotearoa New Zealand, Professor Anne Tuohy, has announced two new appointments to positions in the Institute. Dr Chris Duthie-Jung is to be Head of Partnerships and Director of the National Centre for Religious Studies. Mrs Anne Kennedy is to be Associate Director National Centre for Religious Studies, Curriculum. When Read more
National Party MP Alfred Ngaro allegedly punched an atheist teacher at his son’s school for not bowing his head during a prayer. Ngaro, a list MP and former chairman of the Tamaki College Board of Trustees, was last week dragged into the Employment Relations Authority dispute between Tamaki College and former art teacher Christopher Scott Read more
Under the new constitution, all three main languages in Fiji, English, i-Taukei and Hindi, will be compulsory subjects in primary schools. The General Secretary of the Fijian Teachers Association, Masika Namudu, is reported as opposing the teaching of Hindi, but declined to be interviewed when approached by Radio Australia. Continue reading
The escalation in student violence is a major crisis for the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, its General Secretary Rev Dr Tevita Havea says, and he is suggesting that closing the rival boarding schools of ‘Atele and Toloa for ten years might be a way forward for the schools and the country. He was commenting Read more
The first XVs from Newlands and Bishop Viard colleges have been suspended from playing rugby this weekend after two vicious brawls that resulted in the referee calling off their game last Saturday. Six players – two from Newlands College and four from Bishop Viard College – have also been separately charged with offences contrary to Read more
Schools are bracing for the biggest changes to their funding in seven years, as officials measure how rich or poor their pupils’ families are. The decile ranking system is intended to compensate adequately schools whose parents cannot afford to make big donations. However, schools in rich areas are still about $1,000 a year better off for Read more
After years of moving in a more socially liberal direction along with the rest of western Europe, the Spanish government is now doing an about face, seeking to restrict abortion and return the Catholic Church to a prominent role in the country’s school system. Though the Church is still losing ground among the faithful, it Read more
More than 50 state schools have cancelled bible based education in school hours since 2011, with a lack of teaching volunteers and decline in parental support cited as the main reasons. Rationalist David Hines has questioned state schools about their religious instruction programmes under the Official Information Act, and plans to create a public database Read more