Fewer children starting school can speak in sentences, prompting an investigation by education chiefs.

Education Minister Hekia Parata is in negotiation in the hope of opening more charter schools next year, possibly allowing tertiary institutions to run them.

Schools are being made to re-enrol students they had kicked out for bad behaviour including carrying weapons, physical assaults and drug use.

An organisation headed by broadcaster and former politician Willie Jackson is in negotiations to open a charter school.

A former principal and her husband who scammed $30,000 from a decile one school have abandoned their appeal after a judge told them they may be jailed.

The number of young school children achieving or bettering the national standard in reading has fallen or flat-lined in half of the country's regions.

How open Kiwi students are to international cultures and opportunities could be measured as an important part of the school curriculum.

The Serious Fraud Office says it has found no criminal offending at Te Pataka Ohanga, the subsidiary of the Kohanga Reo National Trust.

How much graduates in different fields of study can expect to earn has been revealed. So what should school students be choosing to study?

A teacher at a now defunct school created a "truly horrific environment" for pupils, including threatening to cut off boys' penises, a Teachers Council decision reveals.

A complaint against a daycare centre is being investigated after a 2-year-old managed to wrap five rubber bands around her neck.

A principal and her husband who admitted siphoning more than $30,000 from a decile one school in South Auckland have been sentenced to home detention.

A former teacher at one of the country's top secondary schools has appeared in court charged with committing an indecent act at the school.

One of New Zealand's first charter schools is urgently searching for teachers and has turned to outside help for lessons just over a month after opening its doors.

Editorial: To obtain the right answers, it is necessary to ask the right questions. Asking the wrong questions invites only obfuscation or a muddying of the waters.

The distraught parents of an infant who needed hospital treatment after being repeatedly bitten by a 2-year-old boy at a preschool.

Respectful attitudes to sex would become a core part of sex education in schools under an overhaul recommended to the Govt.

Finding the right school is not an easy task. There are many complications, not least the relevance of data available on each school, and ongoing debate about the value of the qualifications offered.

In the second of our three-part education series we investigate what's gone wrong - and how more time with better-trained teachers could help our kids lead the world again.

New Zealand's most at-risk school students should receive similar funding as those who are attending controversial charter schools, those involved in alternative education say.

The Government is working towards more charter or partnership schools beyond the five already approved Prime Minister John Key said ahead of the opening of the first one today.

A top Auckland secondary school is asking parents to shell out more than $1000 when their sons return to class in two weeks' time.

New "executive" and "expert" positions in schools could have wide-reaching effects - including more-energised teachers and reduced competition between schools.

National has managed to win praise from many of its usual critics - even the teacher unions - for its latest policy to try to lift student achievement.

PM John Key is today expected to unveil a plan that will allow the boards of some poorly performing schools to hire high performing principals with big pay incentives.

Education Minister Hekia Parata is preparing for an embarrassing drop in New Zealand's education rankings in an international survey next week.

Parents are fuming at early-childhood education centres that charge for public holidays, when the doors are shut and children are not able to attend.