Former charter schools are expressing caution about David Seymour's revival plans

A return to charter schools is again a leap into the unknown, with educational institutions wanting to see the details of the new legislation before they change back

By the time term one starts next year up to 35 state schools will be open as charter schools, six years after the model was abolished the first time around.

They have just six months to get ready for the change but even the old charter schools haven't decided whether they'll make the switch back.

"We're at the point that we'll wait and see what comes out in the legislation," says Karen van Gemerden, chief executive of Villa Education Trust which runs South Auckland Middle School and Middle School West Auckland for years seven to 10.

South Auckland Middle School used to operate as a charter school before they were changed to a designated character school under Labour.

"I think it's very likely to be a very positive thing but until the details are announced I think it would be hard for anyone to say straight out that they're going to convert when they don't actually know what the model looks like."

Villa was among the first to be granted charter school status for its schools under the previous National government but changed to a designated character school under Labour.

Van Gemerden welcomes the revival of the charter schools but says Villa is working well as a special designated character school.

"Switching to be a designated character school did give us more availability to some of the ministry resources for some support of the students etc that we weren't entitled to as a charter school," she says.

It was no surprise when the Associate Education Minister and ACT leader David Seymour last week announced charter schools' reinstatement, after promising to revive them during last year's election campaign.

The Government will allocate NZ$153 million from the 2024 Budget to convert 35 state schools into charter schools next year and create 15 new charter schools between 2025 and 2026.

Most of that money will be spent on the 15 new schools over the next four years, RNZ education correspondent John Gerritsen tells The Detail.

Called partnership schools or kura hourua, the model horrifies the critics who say there's no evidence that they are public money well spent. Supporters say they give schools autonomy and flexibility to educate students who are failing in the mainstream system.

Some of them have also been at the centre of some wide-ranging controversies.

What's not known is which state schools will convert and what scrutiny they will face, Gerritsen says…

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Out with Reading Recovery; in with structured literacy. There's a big change coming for New Zealand's young readers

The government's order that schools adopt structured literacy might sound high-handed, but the change is being welcomed by many educationalists

Education is facing a bunch of changes, but the important ones are not banned cell phones or woke foods.

The government has ordered teachers to adopt 'structured literacy' to get children reading.

That means Reading Recovery, a system New Zealand pioneered and spread to the world, along with 'whole language', is out.

The decision has met with split reactions, with some in the sector welcoming the system change, and others disappointed by it.

The Detail speaks to proponents of both today, looking at the pros and cons of each.

Historically New Zealand schools have taught a mixture of whole language and balanced literacy.

That involves being immersed in and surrounded by books and all different kinds of words, in the belief that children will learn the same way they learn other skills in life - by observing and repetition.

However structured literacy means recognising the symbols for different word sounds (phonics), then recognising them in words. The word often used in conjunction with it is 'decoding'.

"The term itself, structured literacy, was coined by the International Dyslexia Association - so it has trademarked the term," junior teacher and literacy publisher Micaela Bonnar tells The Detail.

"It's an explicit, systematic way of teaching literacy that is seen as building blocks - so you start at the very early stages of teaching letter sounds, then you're looking at spelling patterns, you're looking at the way we can put different word parts together," she says.

"Whole language - from about the 1970s into the '80s - came about with Marie Clay," Bonnar says.

She was the pioneer of Reading Recovery, developed as an early intervention in response to the numbers of children struggling to learn reading and writing.

"The philosophy behind whole language is that learning to read is the same as learning how we talk and listen," Bonnar says.

"The idea is that it's a natural process - therefore if we just surround children with language and literacy-rich environments, lots of books, we read to them, we put them in front of them, that eventually they will learn how to read…

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Do influencers and celebrities with large social media followings have a responsibility to speak out on political and other issues?

Celebrities are being blocked if they don't call out Israel in the war with Gaza. That might look like a social media-fed waste of time, but in an 'attention economy', maybe it's not

#blockout2024 was launched to block celebrities who weren't using their resources to help those in dire need.

The intensity of it, ironically, can feel like bullying.

Social media activism is reaching something of a peak with the war in Gaza, using the hashtag #Blockout2024.

It started at this year's MetGala when influencer and model Haley Kalil was caught on video muttering 'let them eat cake' - suddenly TikTokers were calling for her head.

A digital movement called the 'digitine' - digital guillotine - was launched to block celebrities who weren't using their resources to help those in dire need.

Auckland University Humanities professor Neal Curtis says this is the 'attention economy' in action.

He talks to The Detail about the platforming of free speech, the influence of America in everything to do with social media, and the absence of moderation on the big tech companies including Facebook, X and YouTube.

"People like Elon Musk don't want to moderate Twitter (X) - he's sacked all of his moderation team practically," says Curtis. "Facebook seems to only moderate women who are breastfeeding - Facebook has a very limited notion of moderation. I think what we're seeing here is a problem where, because these tech companies are American, we're seeing an extension of the First Amendment globally."

In the Unites States, the right to free speech is "pretty much an absolute right" says Curtis. "You can say what you like, whenever you like.

"But of course what people don't understand is that nobody is obliged to platform your speech. So most of the social media companies have gone for a low moderation route - just let everybody speak. I mean Twitter is openly inviting explicit neo-Nazis back to Twitter, because it gets engagement .. even if the far right aren't responding, the left are responding and trying to cancel; call out; and it just gets more data, more traction, more eyeballs, more attention.

"Because we live in an attention economy. It's all about making money from getting people's attention."

That attention economy is how #Blockout2024 is gaining momentum. …

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Does New Zealand have a responsibility to address a problem it's created by snapping up seasonal workers from the Pacific?

How a financial win/win situation over seasonal workers turned into a loss for Pacific Island nations watching their citizens leave for richer pastures

One issue that all the leaders of the coalition government have agreed on is the expansion of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.

Established in 2007, the RSE scheme allows workers from participating Pacific countries to come to New Zealand to take up roles on a short-term basis.

For the government, it's a golden solution to address critical labour shortages in some sectors.

Whereas for workers from the Pacific, the ability to earn four or five times more overseas to provide for their families is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Professor Regina Scheyvens (right) says those the scheme views as 'unskilled' workers can be critical sectors of Pacific countries.

Everybody wins, right?

Well, not really.

The co-director of Massey University's Pacific Research and Policy Centre, Professor Regina Scheyvens, says there hasn't been enough attention paid to the economic and social losses for the Pacific as a result of the scheme.

Professor Scheyvens says those the scheme views as 'unskilled' workers can be critical sectors of Pacific countries.

"Many of the people for a start are highly skilled in agriculture and are very skilled in providing food security of their families at home in the Pacific island countries that should not be underestimated.

"If you can actually provide your own family with healthy food from your own land from the vanua and you can also sell food in the market, that can be a good livelihood but it's also contributing to your country's food security. We've all lived through covid lockdowns and border closure times so we know that can't rely on food supply chains from overseas .... so food security shouldn't be underestimated.

When border restrictions were lifted post-covid, New Zealand and Australia took in 48,000 seasonal workers from the Pacific. However, for the islands, there was a noticeable loss of skilled workers.

"At one stage Samoa was pushing back when they realised how many mathematics teachers they had lost to the scheme," Scheyvens says.

"Mechanics, bank-tellers, airport control tower staff .... all sorts of people." …

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It's one thing to be encouraged to accept your body, no matter what size it is. But some 'fat activists' have gone too far in encouraging self-love

The body positivity movement started off as a counter to skinny culture, but it's gone down a social media rabbit hole. Some aspects of it are now sending out dangerous messages

Forget thin is in, apparently now bigger is better... or is it?

After over a decade of body positivity, girls, teens and women are even more confused about what body positivity actually is.

The movement began with women confronting unrealistic expectations of how their bodies should look.

But sub-strands of the movement have muddied the waters and mystified the initial message of the acceptance of bodies no matter what the size, and self-love.

On top of that, unrealistic beauty standards the movement intended to get rid of, still exist.

Hannah Tunnicliffe is an author specialising in body acceptance, eating disorder recovery and mental health.

She thinks progress has been minimal.

"I have three daughters, and there's a lot of pressure on them to have beautiful eyelashes, big round bums, and really there's still that pressure to be thin and have that certain look," she says.

Kate Manne is an associate professor in philosophy at Cornell University in New York, she's also critical about where the movement has ended up.

"I think that for a lot of people it's lost its radical roots... it has become to some extent a matter of often centering thin white bodies who are celebrating a mere roll of flesh or a couple of stretch marks. It doesn't always end up centering the bodies that the movement was designed to centre," she says.

While Manne agrees that all bodies should be accepted and treated positively, she argues the movement intended to centre those who have been historically devalued because of the way they look.

"It's true that we can say that we should be positive about all bodies, but that ends up being a little bit like the phrase 'all lives matter'. No one doubts that all lives matter, the thing is that when someone points out that certain bodies are devalued or subject to aesthetic derogation, it's trying to highlight particular forms of marginalisation that deserve to be centered in political movements," she says.

While some of the narratives which have sprouted out of the body positivity movement, like health at every size (HAES for short) and fat activism carry positive elements, there are some at the more extreme end which health professionals say are potentially harmful. …

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Our current drug laws are harmful, according to a group of experts who want to see the Misuse of Drugs Act overhauled

A push to legalise all drugs in New Zealand hasn't come from stoners and the strung out - it's backed by 155 academics and experts who say the current regime doesn't work

New Zealand's drug legislation hasn't been overhauled in nearly 50 years, in spite of a recommendation from the Law Commission in 2011 to do so.

Our Misuse of Drugs Act was passed in 1975 and is based on a United Nations framework set in 1961.

Now a new organisation, Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa - backed by 155 experts - is calling on the Government to not only amend the legislation, but scrap it all together, and legalise all drugs.

Dr. Rose Crossin is a professor at the University of Otago and a member of the coalition.

She acknowledges that it would be a world first but is a strong advocate for reform, saying the drug causing the most harm, alcohol, is already legal.

"What it comes down to is a choice about where we would like the control of drugs to sit ... we've got a very powerful alcohol industry which I would argue has a policy influence, but for other drugs, we're letting the black market run our drug policy," she says.

But what would it look like if New Zealand were to legalise the drug market?

Crossin says the proposed Psychoactive Drugs Act would regulate the supply of all drugs, including alcohol, under the same framework.

It is taking a harm reduction approach which is centred around people being able to make informed choices.

That could include having drugs packaged with dangers clearly displayed, like we already see on tobacco and cigarettes.

"For some drugs, maybe they should only be available by medical prescription, or we could consider whether only specialist pharmacies would sell them," she says.

No country has gone as far as legalising the entire drug market, however Crossin says there are examples where easing restrictions on some drugs has worked.

Germany is the latest country to relax its laws on cannabis, becoming the largest European country to legalise the possession and cultivation of the recreational drug.

Doctor Fiona Hutton, who is a criminology professor at Victoria University, says in countries where cannabis has been legalised harm has reduced, because the substance supply is carefully regulated.

"Because people don't want to break the law to consume the substances that they would like to consume. People would much rather get substances through a carefully regulated supply," she says.

But there are also examples where easing drug laws hasn't worked. …

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Energy experts doubt New Zealand will ever get to 100 percent renewable, and say incentives and rewards are the answer to bridging the gap

Ordinary householders turned off the power last week and saved the country from cuts on the coldest day of the year so far. But there's no recognition or reward for that

When householders and businesses pulled the country back from the brink of painful power cuts on the coldest day of the year, there was no reward for the sacrifices they made in turning off their heat pumps and lights.

Consumers saved the day and switched off about 260 megawatts of power last Friday when Transpower revealed the country faced a potential electricity shortfall due to the unseasonal cold snap, low wind generation and planned outages of several power stations.

They were the "real unsung heroes", says SolarZero chief executive Matt Ward. In another country they would have been paid for reducing their own power but New Zealand does not have the regulations or mechanisms for incentives, he says.

"That's one of the things we're advocating for; is the market mechanisms and the regulations to be put in place," he says.

Such systems are widely used around the world, including in the UK during the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war, when a demand response system was set up so that consumers were paid if they turned off their heat pumps, he says.

Ward's SolarZero and its customers helped "keep the lights on" in New Zealand on Friday by providing 30MW of energy into the grid, equivalent to 100,000 hot water systems.

He explains to The Detail how the company's 'virtual power plant' worked on the day, by exporting energy into the national grid from its network of 15,000 residential customers whose homes are powered by solar panels and batteries. They continued to keep their heaters and lights on while feeding their extra power into the grid.

He says it is an example of the new technology that could do more towards a resilient power supply, but it needs the right support from updated market mechanisms.

As the country transitions away from fossil fuels towards 100 percent renewable electricity, Ward says much of the focus has been on building generation. But the biggest challenge for New Zealand is the transmission and distribution of electricity.

"You can't just build your way out of it, you can't have so much resilience in the system because ultimately the consumers will pay for it and they can't afford to pay for it. …

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We're never going to let go of our notes and coins - so the Reserve Bank is not only looking at digital currency for the future, it's also trialling cash services for small towns

With banks deserting small towns and leaving just an ATM behind, the Reserve Bank is starting to think about how communities can get better access to money.

What happens when cash is king - and then your bank leaves.

A businessman in a town which hasn't had a bank for three years says the Reserve Bank's plans to put more cash in the hands of its people and introduce digital cash could save hours of time.

John Bougen is chairman of the local business association in Reefton. He's spent most of his life in Auckland and was co-founder of the Dress Smart shopping mall franchise. After spending years working in that industry, he has moved to a town that has very few stores.

The town's population hovers around 1,000. Retailers can feed notes into a flash cash machine left behind by the BNZ when it went, but coins are an issue.

The Reserve Bank is looking at putting more cash into the hands of these kinds of communities through "cash trials". This could involve security vans being subsidised to pick up cash from small businesses or installing smarter ATMs.

Bougen says the town has learned to cope without a bank.

"Initially, it was a real bugger,'' Bougen says.

"But people adapt. So the businesses now have change groups. If anyone's off to Greymouth, which is only an hour away, they will pick up change for anyone who wants it ... somebody picks it up and comes back with a satchel full of coins."

Despite this, he says cash is a "West Coast tradition" and he thinks the cash trials would "absolutely" help.

"We did talk at some point about that with the BNZ, but as they said they're just one of many banks. If there was some central organisation that could handle that and they come and pick up your cash and take it away without having to go and stand at the machine, that'd be wonderful. If that was the case, then you're going to be better off time-wise than you would have been even before the bank closed. If somebody's going to come along in an armoured vehicle and snatch your bag from you and keep driving down the road, well that's great."

He also thinks a new form of digital cash would "certainly have some merits".

"Everyone carries a mobile, it would be a lot easier, but New Zealand we hate giving away on stuff we've always had ... cash has been something we've had right from day one, it's the gold standard as it were." …

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There are five Pacific languages listed as endangered by UNESCO. What's the point of reviving them?

The loss of a language is also the loss of knowledge, histories and connections. But if there are no native speakers, should we let them die?

According to UNESCO, the Rotuman language is listed as endangered along with four other Pacific languages - Tokelauan, Niuean, Cook Islands Māori and Tuvaluan.

More than 160 languages are spoken in New Zealand.

Week-long events celebrate the unique languages heard across the country, and this week the focus is on the Rotuman language.

According to UNESCO, the Rotuman language is listed as endangered along with four other Pacific languages - Tokelauan, Niuean, Cook Islands Māori and Tuvaluan.

RNZ newsreader Marama T-Pole is trying to master the Tuvaluan language, as part of her efforts to maintain her connection to her Tuvaluan roots.

Growing up in Dunedin, she said there was a longing for her to explore her cultural identity.

"It was actually very invisible in my life - my Tuvaluan culture," she says.

"There was nothing that I could see that represented my father's culture.

"Despite that, there was this gnawing inside of me that wanted to connect to my Tuvalu side and in fact I was felt like there was something missing, even when I came to Auckland I was surrounded by a lot of Tuvaluan families and community up here but I still felt like I was not present.

"I couldn't really participate, properly connect, converse with the ladies or the aunties and it just felt like I was a bystander."

T-Pole says the push to speak Tuvaluan started when she took up the role of being a Sunday School teacher at her Tuvaluan Presbyterian church.

"All of our congregation couldn't speak English properly, and every month they would ask me to do a report back to the congregation, I would speak in English and they would be saying 'speak in Tuvaluan!'

"So in my broken language, I would try and start reporting back to them about what was happening and gradually over several years while I was doing it, I started to speak the language more.

"What happened in doing that ... is that suddenly this hole that I've had growing up had disappeared."

While T-Pole admits she still has a long way to go in speaking Tuvaluan fluently, she says holding a conversation in Tuvaluan with her father before he passed away is a memory she treasures most.

In 2022 the government launched the Pacific Languages Strategy, an action plan to reverse the declining use of Pacific languages in Aotearoa. …

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New Zealand's aged care sector faces huge inequities - while the flashiest ever has just opened in Auckland, many in smaller towns are closing

How's your aged care set-up looking? Because it can run from a butler and caviar service, to having to trot down the corridor at night to the loo

A rest home with a concierge, iced tea fountain, hybrid Jaguars to drive, and caviar on the menu.

That's not imaginary or from some far-flung country - it's reality here in Aotearoa. Oceania Healthcare just officially opened 'The Helier' - a retirement apartment and aged-care complex in the Auckland suburb of St Heliers, described by the company as ''five-star hotel-like'' service.

A different reality at the other end of the aged-care sector, which includes rest homes and specialist private hospitals, is hurting many older Kiwis. Many rest homes are shutting up shop while the sector is staring at a crisis.

BusinessDesk reporter Gregor Thompson has just visited The Helier and had a look at some of the aged care rooms within the complex.

"They've got Alexa built in to them, which means you can voice activate jazz if you see fit, you can ask it what the weather's doing outside. They've got nice TVs, there's 24-hour clinical care that is tailored to each resident's needs, you've got a canapé service, there's a butler, there's a general manager, a French guy, his name is Olivier, not Oliver, so I think that's quite indicative of the type of place that it is."

This is the only private-bed aged care facility in the country, meaning if you get the government-funded residential care subsidy you can't get into these rooms.

At the same time, Thompson is covering the other "extreme".

"You've got small facilities in the regions that are often owner-operated or run by charities and they are experiencing a lot of financial hardship - many of them are closing down."

He gives examples of homes in Foxton Beach, Taumarunui, Levin, Te Awamutu and Rangiora.

A recently released report by Sapere Research, commissioned by Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand, has found the sector could be short of 12,000 beds by 2032.

"There's not enough funding to sustain the current aged residential care model," Thompson says.

"In simple terms, the cost to provide care outstrips the residential care subsidy."

The subsidy is paid by Te Whatu Ora to the rest home or hospital and depends on the resident's level of income.

And change isn't imminent - Minister for Seniors Casey Costello told Thompson a Budget bid for extra money probably won't happen until 2025.

…

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