It's no secret that low productivity is a major issue for the New Zealand economy. There are many factors contributing to that. Read more

Question: How many electricians does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: Just one, as long as they’ve completed a Job Safety, Environmental Analysis and Risk Assessment, a COVID-19 Workplace Safety SmartForm and an Electrical Safety Certificate. Read more

In an article in the June 11-17 edition of the New Zealand Listener, speech-language therapist Karena Shannon argued that our education system over-values literacy and under-values oral language. Shannon correctly noted that oral language is “innate” in human beings, whereas literacy is “constructed”. Read more

On 31 July 2022, New Zealand's borders will fully reopen. This will be a welcome development for education providers, especially those in the tertiary sector. Read more

Our education system is becoming a bit like a gym in which people use robots to pump iron for them. The trend began in the 1980s when hand-held calculators became cheap. Read more

In July last year a furore erupted when seven eminent professors from the University of Auckland published a letter in the New Zealand Listener. They wrote to criticise Ministry of Education plans to include mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge) in the science curriculum for schools. Read more

The New Zealand Initiative hosted a symposium on literacy education practice and policy yesterday. The attendees numbered about one hundred and included teachers, representatives of literacy advocacy groups and a representative from the Ministry of Education. Read more

There’s a crisis that everyone’s talking about. Far too many Māori and Pacific young people are not thriving in our education system. Read more

Like Lewis Carroll’s Red Queen, Elon Musk is fond of impossible things. And not content with simply believing them, Musk likes actually to get them done. Read more

At the general election in 2023, New Zealand will mark 30 years and ten elections since it adopted the Mixed-Member Proportional Representation (MMP) electoral system. A criticism of MMP is that the party list system allows party hierarchies essentially to appoint their apparatchiks to parliament. Read more

There was once a place called the University. I knew it well – in fact I grew up there. Read more