Also, when assessing, teachers simply have no idea whether the learning involved is properly processed or not.
To be so, after any new learning, the full information has to be experienced twice again, a two-day interval between each. Few would know of this Nuthall-discovered rule, it would be safe to say none use it.
Solidly based facts such as these - more could be quoted - renders laughable one of NS's main concepts, the Overall Teacher Judgments (OTJs). That the latest Ministry of Education report says teachers "were 'very confident' in both the accuracy of the OTJs they had made and the consistencies within their schools" indicates just how embedded subjectivity is, and how much we need a new assessment and reporting system.
Laurie Loper, Tauranga
Misleading parks
I went downtown Tauranga on Saturday morning and discovered that parking is now "no fee" on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, only to find on my return that someone was getting a ticket as they had parked more than an hour.
The meter has a sign that showed the weekday hours and fees then below that, in brackets, "Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays - No Fee".
Below that (not in brackets) was the words "P60".
I thought no fee meant no fee.
This is deceptive and misleading.
Are Saturday afternoons, Sundays and Public Holidays, now no longer free after the allocated time on the sign?
Does this mean that when I go to the movies in the evening I now have to go and put money in the meter after the allotted free time or do I have to move my car?
Downtown Tauranga should be free like all the other shopping centres in our area.
What the council should do is encourage people to go downtown Tauranga, not dissuade them - we need to hold on to our town centre, not just for the profit of the retailers. Changing the signs so they make more sense is not the answer - just make weekends and public holidays free.
(Abridged)
Elaine Comyn, Te Puna
Tauranga City Council responds:
It is free to park in the city centre on Saturdays and Sunday. This includes the two parking buildings. However, the time restrictions for on street parking on Saturdays still apply and will be enforced (The time restrictions are enforced with the support of Downtown Tauranga, the organisation that represents city centre businesses).
On each pay and display machine there is a sticker above the screen that clearly states this information.
Council advises people parking in the city centre in the weekends to check the parking time limit signage on the street and on the pay and display machines when they park their cars. Parking in the parking buildings is the best option for people wanting to avoid the time restrictions - there is free all-day parking on Saturdays and no time restrictions.
Sick environment
The recent revelation that the Rotorua lakes are so sick that anyone eating more than one trout per month will put their own health at risk is a sad indictment of what we have done to our so-called 100 per cent pure environment.
How did this happen?
Scientists and local environmentalists are pointing the bone of blame at the agri chemicals, fertilisers and effluents that farmers and orchardists have poured into what was once 100 per cent pure pristine lakes.
What more of a warning and wake up call do we need here in Tauranga Moana?
Will we wake up in time and stop pouring poisons into our harbour.
Surely this an outrage and a lethal legacy for tomorrow's tamariki? We need to get real right now, before the safe harbour called Tauranga becomes the sick harbour, and we will be eating sick snapper and pirau pipi?
T Kapai, Te Puna
No broadband
In Wednesday's paper we saw the article on the launch of high-speed broadband in our city which is great for those who can receive it.
For us who live only 16km from the city centre, it would be great to get any sort of broadband.
We have petitioned Telecom to be told that "hell will freeze over" before it gets to us.
Unfortunately trying to get mobile broadband is also proving difficult.
As we try to run our business from home it is proving frustrating and difficult. It would be nice to see some of the money allocated to the latest venture directed to our area so we can enjoy some sort of service, in the meantime it's back to using dial up again.
Terry Gradon, Lower Kaimai
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