Should Dame Jacinda Ardern turn up for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic?
Ministers’ comments on teaching ‘misleading’
Recent remarks from Judith Collins and Minister of Education Erica Stanford suggesting teachers enjoy long holidays and generous pay are both misleading and insulting.
With respect, Collins has no authority to dismiss the realities of teaching. Unless she has stood in front of 30 diverse learners, day after day, then spent her evenings planning and assessing, her claims hold little weight.
Most teachers work 10-hour days. “Holidays” are not holidays at all – they are spent on-site, planning, preparing and updating classrooms. Even intervals and lunchtimes are swallowed by marking, resourcing, or supporting students.
Beyond this, teachers volunteer countless hours for extracurricular activities, school events, and professional learning. In many ways, we are raising other people’s children – caring for their wellbeing, managing complex needs, and guiding their futures – while surviving on wage increases of barely 1%.
Teaching is not a nine-to-three job, nor the cushy role politicians describe. It is demanding, professional work requiring dedication, patience, and skill. To minimise teachers’ efforts with throwaway lines undermines the profession and the vital contribution we make to New Zealand.
Teachers deserve better than being treated as political punching bags.
Lyn Jackson, Dargaville.
Paying for education
I fully support the concept of private schools for many reasons, having attended private schools my entire schooling years before going to university. I came out with a fulfilling educational experience and lifelong friendships with peers and teachers alike.
My understanding has always been that private schools were meant to lift some of the burdens off governments, where those who wish to have a “different” style of education - and not necessarily better – for their offspring, and can afford it, would opt in and pay for that, at the same time providing some relief to the system.
Why would these schools have an entitlement to the pot meant for the state schools?
Privilege is not a dirty word, 100% true, but government focus and contribution should be directed towards the non-privileged and, even better, to the under-privileged.
Selam Raoof, Unsworth Heights.
No need for inquiry
Demanding that Dame Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins, Grant Robertson and anyone else involved in the matter should turn up to yet another inquiry around how the Covid response was dealt with is pointless.
All that was needed to be addressed was at the time of the pandemic and the first inquiry.
The presence of any of these people at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic is neither required nor compulsory. This current situation smacks very much of a coalition Government having run out of resources and ideas of its own, and that feels by exhuming, resuscitating and flogging a long-dead horse, voters will somehow be inspired to vote for them at the next election.
My first two questions at any such commission would be: “How many millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted to fund this unnecessary project, and how would the coalition have handled the response if they had been in power?”
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.
Lessons to learn
It is a rare event when the actions of our politicians are subjected to such intense post facto scrutiny, as currently is the case with Dame Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins for the actions they took during the Covid pandemic.
Such is the significance of both the pandemic itself and the political actions of the response that a retrospective study of these events should not be the controversy currently emerging.
An apolitical principled examination is entirely appropriate because we must learn from this experience to the benefit of future New Zealanders.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Assault on truth
According to +972 Magazine, an independent news site run by Israeli and Palestinian journalists, Israel created a special military unit, a so-called “legitimisation cell”, tasked with smearing Palestinian journalists as Hamas fighters. It reports that intelligence sources admit that at least one journalist was falsely labelled a militant, which in Gaza effectively places someone on a death list. He was removed from the target list before he was attacked, according to the report.
The outlet +972 Magazine is respected for its investigative journalism and focus on human rights. If these reports are true, this is not about security: it is about silencing the voices that report the reality of Gaza to the world. Over 240 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the war began.
Dana A Patterson, Ōneroa.
A must-watch championship
Oh lordy, lordy, how amazing was that win by the Wallabies over the world champion Springboks, and at Ellis Park, spiritual home of South African rugby!
How lucky were the Lions to get the rub of the ref to win the series in Australia?
This Rugby Championship is a must-watch for spectacular, world-leading excitement.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.