Latest news with #education reform
RNZ News
a day ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
What you need to know about recent changes to schools and education
New maths and English curriculum has begun rolling out this year. Photo: Unsplash/ Greg Rosenke Explainer - It's been a year full of changes in the educational system, with announcements and new initiatives coming nearly every week from the coalition government. What has been announced and what's coming up soon? Here is a roundup of just some of the major announcements we've seen in 2025 that will affect students and educators: The new maths curriculum and English curriculum for primary school-aged students began this year. It's all part of the first steps in the government's long-term push for what it's calling a "knowledge-rich" curriculum . The government also previously announced moves towards teaching structured literacy skills to students. The drafts of the secondary English and maths curriculums are also out for feedback. Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The government announced it would no longer build open-plan classrooms , moving away from the policy which Education Minister Erica Stanford called too noisy and distracting for children. While there has been negative feedback from schools on open-plan learning, Stanford said, surveys by the Council for Educational Research showed most teachers who worked in the structures liked them and believed their students benefited from learning in that kind of environment. New classrooms will be built using standard designs that prioritise flexibility, like glass sliding doors that can open a class when it is time to collaborate and close it for focused learning. Erica Stanford speaks to students at a Wellington school. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The government is also allocating $140 million to tackle truancy with a new school attendance service . The funding boost is aimed at supporting more schools and reaching double the number of students over the next four years, according to Associate Education Minister David Seymour. He said the new attendance service would address chronic absence and focus on keeping students in school when they return. Transitioning to the new attendance service would start at the end of the year and be fully in place from early 2026. Charter schools have returned to New Zealand this year under the coalition government . They were previously shut down by former Education Minister Chris Hipkins in 2018. Seven of the publicly-funded, private schools opened in Term 1. The Charter School Agency said the charter school authorisation board was considering 52 applications from organisations wanting to set up new charter schools next year, as well as two applications from state or state integrated schools wanting to convert. A new school property entity is being set up to manage building, maintaining, and administering the school property portfolio. Stanford said the new Crown agent will sit separate from the Ministry of Education, which will keep responsibility for education policy and network decisions. Announcing the launch of the New Zealand School Property Agency, Stanford said schools had been kept waiting for classrooms and refurbishments they badly needed. A new 600-student primary school was also announced for Massey in Auckland . The government announced $28 million will be spent on building more "safe, warm and dry classrooms" for tamariki in Māori full immersion schools. Twenty new classrooms will be built across four providers, and work will begin on the first stage of a new school north of Auckland. The new development, for Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāringaomatariki in Kaiwaka, will eventually have 19 classrooms. It was announced in this year's budget that the Kāhui Ako - Communities of Learning - scheme was to be disestablished . The scheme grouped schools together to work on common problems with extra pay for one principal to oversee each group and for select teachers to share good practice between and within schools. A report said there were 220 Kāhui Ako, involving 1958 schools and 1506 early learning centres, and more than 4000 teachers received extra pay for Kāhui Ako roles. From November, eligible student-visa holders will be able to work more hours a week , from 20 to 25 hours, and work rights will be extended to all tertiary students in approved exchange programmes. The government will also consider introducing a short-duration work visa of up to six months to allow international graduates who do not qualify for post-study work rights time to seek jobs under the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) pathway. It would also look at updates to make it easier for students to apply for multi-year visas. The goal was to boost tertiary education's annual economic contribution to $7.2 billion, by lifting enrolments from 83,700 in 2024 to 119,000 in 2034. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford visit Sherwood Primary School in Browns Bay, Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi There were several big spending announcements in this year's budget. Stanford said new education initiatives in the Budget totalled $2.5 billion over four years, though about $614m of that total was reprioritised from "underperforming" initiatives. The government's total spend on early childhood and school education would grow by roughly $400m to $19.85b in 2025-26, but drop to $19b and $18.9b in subsequent years. There was also a $720m increase for learning support. The increase included $266m to extend the early intervention service from early childhood through to the end of Year 1 of primary school, including employing 560 more early intervention teachers and specialists and helping an additional 4000 children. It also included $192m over three years to provide learning support coordinators in 1250 more primary schools, $122m to meet increased demand for the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme for students with the highest needs, and $90m to build 25 new satellite classrooms for specialist schools. Stanford said the government was building up to adding 2 million extra teacher aide hours by 2028. The other big education initiative in the Budget was $298m for curriculum, nearly half of it targeted to maths and literacy, and about $76m for a new standardised reading, writing and maths test for schools. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CBC
10-05-2025
- CBC
Winnipegger's teaching certificate suspended just weeks after sexual assault charges laid — unlike past cases
The teaching certificate of a Catholic school employee has been suspended within weeks of charges of sexually assaulting a teenage student being laid against him — a change from the months it previously could take to suspend teachers. Changes to Manitoba's Education Administration Act, which came into effect in January, created an independent teacher commissioner. The commissioner can freeze teacher credentials during an investigation — instead of waiting for a disciplinary hearing or a court process to be complete — if it is deemed necessary to protect students from harm. It ensure a "timely responsiveness and a process … to keep schools safe," said Bobbi Taillefer, Manitoba's first independent education commissioner. She oversees investigations and discipline of teachers, and posts discipline records on a public registry. Ketan Badiani's case may be an early indication of how the new legislation will work. The 58-year-old was escorted off the St. Maurice School campus in Fort Garry on March 17, after school administrators received a complaint from a high school student regarding unprofessional behaviour by the high school math teacher. His contract was terminated three days later, after further investigation, St. Maurice executive director Bryan Doiron previously told CBC News. Winnipeg police also investigated, and Badiani was arrested on April 11. Investigators believe the teacher gained the trust of a student in her mid-teens and forged an inappropriate relationship with her using private messaging on social media between October 2024 and March. He has since been charged with sexual assault, sexual exploitation and luring a person under 18 by telecommunication. Records from the Manitoba teacher's registry, containing the certification status of kindergarten to Grade 12 education professionals, show Badiani's certificate was still in good standing on April 17, the day Winnipeg police publicly released information on Badiani's charges. It is unclear when exactly Badiani's certificate was suspended. The information is neither disclosed in the province's registry nor provided by the commissioner. However, when CBC News reviewed the registry on May 2, Badiani's teaching certificate showed as suspended. Taillefer can't comment directly on Badiani's case, but she said a teacher's certificate can now be suspended while her office investigates a complaint or report of professional misconduct and before a disciplinary hearing is held to determine whether the teacher is guilty. The sole key concern for a certificate suspension lies in whether it is needed to protect students, Taillefer said. That authority to suspend certificates, which has only been in place since January, was first introduced in amendments to how Manitoba manages the teaching profession that were brought forward under the former Progressive Conservative government and later followed through on by the NDP, after they took office in 2023. "It's important for the province, frankly, to know that there are checks and balances in place to make sure that schools continue to be safe," Taillefer said. "We have legislation that we will follow that will allow for the protection of students." Before the creation of the commissioner, Manitoba's Education Department was responsible for suspending or cancelling a teacher's certificate. A spokesperson for the province said in "many cases," a final decision on a teacher's certificate was only made after court proceedings finished. In one case, a teacher's certificate wasn't cancelled until years after he was convicted of sexually touching a minor. Taillefer's investigations are independent of Manitoba's court system, which determines whether a teacher is criminally responsible. The independent commissioner's investigation and a subsequent licence suspension can happen before charges are tested in court, as in Badiani's case. 'Huge step forward' A spokesperson for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection said putting a teacher on leave or suspending a certificate during an investigation, particularly in serious cases, "helps ensure student safety during the investigative process." "The priority must always be to first safeguard students if there is an identified risk," the statement said. Peter Hamer, a survivor of sexual abuse by a teacher and co-founder of the advocacy group Stop Educator Child Exploitation, says the process of investigating a complaint of misconduct can stretch over months, and it is important to prevent an accused teacher from moving to another school and regaining access to students. "The suspension … is a key component," Hamer said. But so is having a mechanism in place, like the online registry, to make that information publicly available, he said. While some might worry vindictive students could make false accusations against a teacher, Hamer said it is rare for such allegations to turn out to be a lie. "We're talking about a very serious accusation," he said. Before the new protocol came into effect, Manitoba was "one of the worst provinces" in addressing teacher misconduct, Hamer said, having no independent investigative body. But with the amendments to the legislation, the province is on track to having one of the best systems in the country, he said. "It is a huge step forward," he said. "I was really impressed with how it worked." There are still opportunities for improvement, he said. For instance, the registry falls short of being entirely transparent, as it doesn't show the reason for a certificate's suspension or cancellation, unlike in other provinces — important information for parents and employers outside schools. Hamer would also like to see more training involving staff and students. Staff at Manitoba schools are required to complete a mandatory training course on sexual abuse prevention that needs to be renewed every four years. "A lot of times, people don't know what to look for," Hamer said. "It's so challenging these days with social media," where grooming or abuse can happen out of the public eye, and "often the student isn't aware that what's happening is going to lead to something bad." The student who said she was sexually assaulted by Badiani reported the teacher quicker than most survivors and victims, Hamer said. With more information provided at schools, reports could come in when a teacher's conduct starts crossing the line and ideally before students are assaulted, he said. "We don't want victims. We want people to understand the process that a lot of sexual predators use in order to gain trust, in order to push the boundaries," Hamer said. "We owe it to the students."
South China Morning Post
06-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
21 Hong Kong teachers punished for improper student relationships, a 5-year high
Twenty-one Hong Kong schoolteachers were deregistered or disciplined for having inappropriate relationships and physical contact with students in 2024, the highest number in five years, according to education authorities. Advertisement The figure was revealed in a recent reply of the authorities to a letter sent by veteran lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, who had requested the information from the Education Bureau. Ip, who is also the convenor of the Executive Council, raised concerns last Friday over the rising number of cases, criticising school management who received high salaries for failing to monitor teachers' behaviour. According to the bureau's reply, the number of cases it received relating to improper teacher-student relationships or physical contact surged from seven in both 2020 and 2021, to 27 in 2022, 52 in 2023 before it dropped to 36 last year. The bureau said it would follow up on the cases it received, including asking that schools conduct investigations and submit reports. It would also review the registration of teachers and determine disciplinary actions based on the circumstances of each case. Advertisement 'If teachers are found to have committed serious offences, acts of immorality or professional misconduct, the Education Bureau will issue reprimand letters, warning letters or advisory letters to the teachers concerned, depending on the nature and severity of the incidents,' it said. 'For serious cases, the Education Bureau will cancel the registration of teachers.'
