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.

Older long-term unemployed people look set to lose out in a radical reshuffle of foundation education which will give higher priority to young people.

A delay in getting at-risk youth back into education can have life-long consequences, education experts say.

The Education Minister has defended national standards despite an independent report which found teachers get them right only 60 per cent of the time.

Nearly half of the millions of dollars mistakenly overpaid to teachers by Novopay has not been given back - with repayment rates as low as $2.50 per week agreed on.

A primary school's board of trustees has been taken over by the Govt, after refusing to implement controversial National Standards data - a move labelled alarming and heavy-handed.

The Novopay debacle is being blamed for delaying the release of National Standards data - an excuse described as odd by a leading unionist.

Parents should have the option to drop their 4-year-old off at school, says a principal who is set to open a preschool on his school's grounds.

Schools are bracing for the biggest changes to their funding in seven years, as officials measure how rich or poor their pupils' families are.

At 3pm every weekday it’s a circus outside most primary schools in the country as parents vie for a parking space so they can collect their children.

Children's marks in National Standards will be artificially lowered this year because last year's assessment was too easy.

The report plans for the creation of a "Finishing School for New Zealand Political Aspirants - the Cabbage Boat Academy", writes Toby Manhire.

The Government might look at merging the boards of small neighbouring schools that struggled to get enough suitable candidates for this week's nationwide board of trustee elections.

The Government will invest $80.5 million of operating funding over four years to lift educational achievement, including funding for behaviour programmes.

United Future leader Peter Dunne has said he won't support a bill to introduce charter schools. However, the bill will go ahead with National, Act and Maori Party support.

There are no plans to replicate the way Christchurch schools have been rationalised elsewhere in the country, Education Minister Hekia Parata has assured primary school principals.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has corrected an answer to Parliament about the resignation of Education Secretary Lesley Longstone.

Education Minister Hekia Parata is refusing to budge on Thursday's Christchurch schools closure and merger deadline in spite of an Ombudsman's Office investigation into the consultation process.

The Education Minister has accepted there's room for improvement after a rare move from the Ombudsman to investigate Education Ministry consultation processes

It is now two months since the Government's trouble-shooting minister, "Mr Fix-it" Steven Joyce, was sent into the Education Ministry to sort out Novopay.

The head of secondary school principals has criticised the Government for not doing enough to help schools combat the growing problem of bullying.

The Ministry of Education is bloated, inefficient and making the jobs of principals more difficult, says the outgoing president of the Secondary Principals' Association.