education

Whose Education is it Anyway?
Primary and Secondary education has been captured by providers - the teachers. The net result is market forces are revealing parental preferences for fewer and fewer State schools....
14 July 2004 - Gareth Morgan

State School Education – Cannot Escape Market Forces
State Schooling is no able to control the widening gap between the best and worst education available....
1 July 2004 - Gareth Morgan

The Collapse of Student Immigration
They were going to make investors in education rich, why it's all turned to mush, can it recover?...
11 March 2004 - Gareth Morgan

From Sheep to Students
Does the torrent of foreign students to New Zealand benefit or damage the education asset generations of taxpayers have built up? Over recent years downtown main street New Zealand hums to the lunchtime chatter of foreign students as they spill out of the various education houses to lunch and chatter their hour...
26 June 2002 - Gareth Morgan

Student Loan Emigrants: Don't blame the loans, blame the economy.
The ongoing complaints about the student loan scheme miss one important point. Other countries have similar schemes and have had them far longer than we have. This suggests that in large part the persistent furore is more about the relatively new (it started 10 years ago!) concept of paying for tertiary education, than it...
21 March 2002 - Gareth Morgan

For our education institutions, carpe diem
In a world where internationalisation has become the key to protecting and enhancing one's wealth individuals, businesses and indeed towns have to lift their thinking beyond the parochial local horizon and move on the "big hits" the global market offers. Insofar as our educational institutions are concerned, a couple of months ago I...
28 June 2000 - Gareth Morgan

The Knowledge Economy and Regional Development
These two are precious to the new government - if political rhetoric is to be believed. Clearly Mr Anderton's People's Bank and possum farms are examples of government bailing out the regions - sorry, playing a 'partnership' role in their resurrection. We could argue whether these are empty or just misguided gestures but the main point is they...
19 June 2000 - Gareth Morgan

Made in New Zealand: Dumbed-down degrees
One of the tangible costs of education reform over the 1990's in New Zealand has been the dumbing-down of product the tertiary sector churns out. With the funding for institutions dependent on EFTS (equivalent full time student) numbers that they attract, there has naturally arisen an irresistible urge for institutions to capture more and more...
18 August 1999 - Gareth Morgan

Teach your children well
Jenny Shipley came back from her most recent overseas tour imperiously pointing out that New Zealand's future lay in developing our human capital - that's the new jargon for raising the level of our skills and educational achievement. This is hardly a novel idea. Soothsayers' fads for the past decade have been the information or the knowledge...
3 February 1999 - Andrew Gawith

To Pay or Not To Pay
Last week was Graduation Week for many universities across the country. As I sat in the Christchurch Town Hall resplendent in my academic regalia with proud parents beaming down at me, it seemed a good time to reflect on my university years. New friendships forged, knowledge gained, and last, but certainly not least, the vast amount of money spent in the process. The 1990s have seen an ...
13 May 1997 - Bridget Smith

If you don't like it, don't whinge, just don't do it
Primary teachers have been trying for some time to stitch together a final deal on pay parity with their secondary colleagues. The job they do is essentially the same, so teachers with the same qualifications should be paid the same, no matter what the age of the children they are teaching. Or so the argument goes. However, this argument is too simplistic. When determining a worker’s ...
7 May 1997 - Tony Booth

Student debt scheme bad for young people
The idea of removing tertiary education as a public good doesn't seem so bad. The Todd Taskforce recommendation that students should pay 75% of their fees directly by the year 2000 is of course part of this agenda, as is the associated student loan scheme which enables consumers of tertiary product to fund their purchase. Driving the move to part ...
11 February 1997 - Gareth Morgan

It's economics lecturers who are the dead fish
In his missive on the demerits of unfettered markets (NZ Herald December 20), Auckland University economics lecturer Tim Hazeldine argues the case for government intervention in the labour market. He suggests that unlike in the market for dead fish, an intervention such as a stipulated minimum wage, as a necessary protection for the working poor....
14 January 1997 - Gareth Morgan