Education Minister Erica Stanford should be fully supported in her project to reform NCEA, writes a reader.
NCEA’s demise
The demise of the thoroughly discredited NCEA qualification system cannot come quickly enough.
The huge economic cost of this failed educational experiment is reflected in a generation of children whose schooling has been marked by underachievement. The NCEA bar has been set too low and the fact that students have been able to self-select easy subjects and yet still achieve “the standard” is an absolute indictment.
Education Minister Erica Stanford should be fully supported in her project to reform the existing status quo with a qualification that has incorruptible benchmarks and that can be trusted.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Open-plan classrooms
As someone in her late 70s who was taught in the formal classroom setting, as we all were then, I was most amused when my then 10-year-old son came home one day from school to tell me how he viewed open-plan classrooms.
Up until our move to Auckland, he too had only experienced the formal setting.
“It’s great being in an open-plan classroom,” he said. “You can go from group to group and the teacher thinks you’re working.”
In actual fact he was not, but he was bright enough to see the stupidity. Another of the many failed education experiments that this country has indulged in.
Annette Stewart, Greenlane.
Backline flair needed
Could somebody please find the All Blacks a new backs coach as the present one is not achieving much. Our All Blacks backline looks like 10-year-olds learning to pass.
They seem to stand too shallow and no one is running on at pace, with no tricky passing moves planned.
The wings may as well sit on the bench, as they are not used. On the good side, the forwards are operating well, considering all the injuries and positional switches.
If we don’t sort out our backline, we will get massacred by the likes of South Africa.
Jock MacVicar, Hauraki.
Defence spending
I support Bernard Walker’s view on defence spending (July 20). Taxpayer money is needed in our essential sectors.
Pumping money into defence means filling the coffers of arms manufacturers who have kept fuelling wars.
Nishi Fahmy, Avondale.
Solar power businesses
Yet another solar power business bites the dust. Why is New Zealand, with its high sunshine hours compared with other countries, so woefully short of power supply?
Had solar systems been mandatory during the last decade atop all new builds, residential and commercial, New Zealand would surely have been saved from its current angst and solar businesses would have boomed.
Ever more countries are capturing this free energy source to the benefit of their economies. What is the true reason for all the anti-solar rhetoric here all these years?
Juliet Leigh, Pt Chevalier.
Concert radio
Like Brian Cross, I too am disappointed in the Concert programme, but for different reasons.
I believe it should stick to its remit as the only radio station dedicated to classical music. However, there are too many “soundbites” in terms of individual movements. Composers wrote their symphonies and concertos to be heard as a whole. To play an individual movement is equivalent to taking a single chapter out of a book and making sense out of it.
While most of the presenters are excellent, there are one or two who seem to love the sound of their own voice. A brief announcement with perhaps a short introduction is all that is required, and the music should be allowed to speak for itself.
Ray Gilbert, Pāpāmoa Beach.
Covid decisions
David Seymour is lambasting Dame Jacinda Ardern for shutting the country down, but thank goodness she did.
If she hadn’t, the death toll would have been unbearable and everyone would have been affected if their loved ones had died due to carelessness.
Then they’d have been blaming Dame Jacinda for not shutting the country down. In a no-win situation, it’s better to work for the majority, always!
Mary-Ann de Kort, Gisborne.