In other words, the key issue is not how we deliver education – in school, online, blended, block course – what matters is if all students are getting…

Hooton, in one neat sentence (repeated in the peculiar staccato delivery method of the paranoid Kiwi right wing male), shows us exactly why National cannot be trusted on education. The authoritarians of the neoliberal right are more interested in revenge…

"The sweeping change will allow any school, tertiary provider or an approved industry to apply to be a "community of online learning" (COOL)."

The same argument is used for charter schools and charter schools have worked out so well..........

....from similarly experienced and qualified advisers like...

Dr. Andrea Schollum, who signed off on the Regulatory Impact Statement for this COOL initiative.

Dr. Schollum has extensive experience in...

..tourism geography. She emigrated to New Zealand from…

Hmmm...according to the Font of All Knowledge, Parata has no teaching experience nor hands on experience in education administration.

In fact, the only reference to "Education" in…

If parents, teachers and just about everyone have reacted badly to Hekia Parata’s online learning policy then she has only herself to blame. If she made the announcement with so little information than people are going to look elsewhere to see what she means.

And if she used…

It would seem from the "$883m for new schools & classrooms" budget announcement that you're correct that Parata isn't trying to make education cheaper or easier for the…

I would not make any claim about competence, but I am sure her intention is precisely to make the system better for everyone, as it…

I make my daily obeisance to the deity who decreed my offspring were well and truly educated in more simple times and…

The traditional model isn't an option any more, things have changed. It's quite possible that large numbers of parents will regard the Paratonline option as better than the current model, and both…

but much less than a trained support worker.

Online learning is an adjunct to traditional learning, rather than a replacement for it. And there's the digital divide issue…

Christ Emma. I hadn't seen this before I posted. It will do our reputations no good to be seen agreeing like…

Yes, I would have though the likelihood of more than a handful of parents taking up this idea (in addition to current homeschoolers)…

It's harder in…

Me too! Although I…

That doesn't affect the economics at all. Every child who isn't in state-funded education saves the government money up front, regardless of the quality of that education (just as every child in state-funded education costs the government money, regardless of the…

Yes. The good thing about it is that…

So we're replacing one teacher per 20-odd pupils with one parent per 2-3 pupils. That sounds like the sort of economic good sense I associate with the National Party and…

Private hospitals send their difficult cases (i.e. expensive cases) to the public health system. I don't think COOLs will be any different – there is…

The way I see it is that if mass-implemented it would be the ultimate Public Private Partnership for schools – the parents supply the…

Ironically,…

The closing of this post is right. It is another route to privatisation of education which frankly is just wrong.

It's the word "I" that makes the difference. Yes, kids with committed carers can and do thrive with home schooling, and on-line delivery of home schooling is can surely be part of that. It's far from clear that kids without that…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_htSPGAY7I

“that’s just crazy, you’re basically giving kids a box containing video games, pornography and long division and claiming 100% of them chose the right one”

“One major study found that…

I think there's also another set of arguments around just how bloody hard on-line teaching, and on-line learning is. As a teacher, I know that it takes an enormous amount of work…