John Gerritsen

Postgraduate students are blowing the whistle on what they say are massive cuts to tutoring and casual lecturing jobs at universities.

The Ministry of Education last year ordered schools to enrol 205 children because there was no other way of persuading principals to accept them.

There are calls for the government to fund more home internet connections so Auckland school children can learn from home. Audio

The Principals' Federation has suggested schools defy legally-binding directives to enrol violent children who have been kicked out of other schools.

Universities are missing hundreds of millions in student fees this year because they are expecting less than half the normal number of international students.

Academics warn major research projects will be held back by a lack of foreign research students.

Principals are welcoming the Ministry of Education's move to electronically monitor the air quality, warmth and noise in new classroom blocks.

Auckland principals are confident this week's lockdown will have little impact on children's learning - as long as it is only for three days.

The Ministry of Education has reacted swiftly after a senior teacher sent Covid-19 conspiracy theories to at least 40 principals and teachers.

Auckland's ongoing shortage of secondary teachers is forcing some schools into compromises or to abandon some subjects altogether, principals say.

Increased demand for trades and health training has boosted enrolments at Manukau Institute of Technology by more than 70 percent compared to last year. Audio

Alarm over falling student achievement has prompted calls for a radical overhaul of the school system.

The Ministry of Education has enlisted a team of experts to tackle New Zealand children's poor performance in maths.

Primary and intermediate school principals are calling on the Ministry of Education to do more to turn to turn around New Zealand children's declining performance. Audio

As schools begin reopening this week, principals say their number one priority is their students' mental health.

Schools have not even reopened for the year and they are already preparing emergency plans for dealing with another lockdown.

Immigration New Zealand figures show there are just 38,954 foreign students in the country and education providers have little prospect of raising that figure this year.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the provisional 2020 results were similar to previous years and in some cases slightly better.

Students can now see how they performed in their end-of-year exams and whether they have achieved an NCEA certificate, after results were published online this morning.

Schools have told the Education Review Office that some children lost 10 weeks of learning in last year's lockdowns, but the overall impact of the pandemic is still unclear.

After years of criticism the Education Ministry has finally reined in delays for specialist help for disabled pre-schoolers that critics said were appalling and outrageous.

Covid-19 has driven the biggest-ever increase in home-schooling enrolments - although home educators expected a larger jump.

There are hopes the online learning the pandemic forced on schools this year will permanently change the way many teachers work.

Education Ministry figures show a quarter of Auckland's 503 schools had enrolled more students than their official classroom capacity by the middle of the year.

The Auditor-General has warned that the national polytechnic could lose $53 million this year and double that amount next year.