Stories by John Gerritsen

Immigration New Zealand figures show 19,191 foreign students remain in the country, a little over a third of the number that were in New Zealand at the start of the pandemic.

The government has refused to fast-track a review of core early childhood education rules despite being told they might not be fit for purpose.

Students in Auckland, Northland and parts of Waikato automatically get an unexpected event grade for any NCEA exams they miss.

Education Ministry figures indicate just 2.4 percent of school teachers have refused the Covid vaccination.

Auckland schools are reporting wildly different attendance rates with some families refusing to send children back to class.

The Tertiary Education Commission says hundreds of initiatives aimed at improving Māori and Pacific students' tertiary education pass rates are poorly-targeted distractions that are not working.

Auditor-General John Ryan has criticised the board of two former charter schools for paying $450,000 in government funding to the schools' owners just before they joined the state school system.

The government's decision to let vaccinated foreign students back into the country from 30 April has disappointed and frustrated some in the international education sector.

Auckland teenagers are citing exhaustion, busy-ness and strategic thinking as reasons for skipping some or even all of their NCEA exams.

Just days after blocking unvaccinated teachers and volunteers from work, the Education Ministry advised schools that the same rules did not apply to parents entering classrooms or attending school…

Do teenagers in Auckland need to turn up to their end of year exams next week? Some of the city's schools are telling students it's up to them whether they sit their exam.

Schools have used stop-gap measures to replace unvaccinated teachers today.

School principals are hoping against hope their vaccination-resistant teachers will get a Covid-19 jab before midnight.

Some secondary schools in alert level 3 areas do not want their Year 9-10 students back until senior students have left for exams.

The government's decision to let 200,000 Auckland children return to school next week for the first time in three months has prompted a mixture of delight, relief, and worry.

Principals are figuring out how to cover classes on Tuesday when staff who have not had at least their first injection are no longer allowed on site.

A small King Country school expects all of its staff will be banned from its classrooms when the government's vaccine mandate takes effect next week.

Universities say their foreign enrolments have remained "astonishingly high" and they are hoping international students can return to the country in the middle of next year.

Daily attendance among Year 11-13 students in the first week of reopening ranged from a high of 48 percent for Year 13 students to a low of 38 percent among that year group.

Principals say some staff are presenting apparently bogus exemption certificates.

Children made the most of last year's lockdown but enjoyed school less than when they were physically present, according to an online survey.

Principals spoken to by RNZ said it was not worth risking people's health even though the ongoing lockdown was harming some children's learning.

Auckland secondary schools are preparing for Tuesday's partial reopening of their classes though some principals are questioning the government's decision.

There are growing calls for the government to cancel end-of-year school exams for students in Auckland.

The national polytechnic is making partnership with Māori the top priority for the nation's 16 polytechnics and institutes of technology.