Wednesday, 20 May 2026 11:25

Back to School

Written by Rural News Group

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OPINION: This old mutt went to school to eat his lunch, but still knows the future of the country, and the primary sector, depends on a conveyor belt of well-educated youth coming through the system.

The current government has made some big changes to try and improve education outcomes, but it seems the only news coverage you'll see on this is the predictable but disappointing whinging from groups like the NZEI and the principals' association.

What we should be hearing are the numbers: school attendance is up from 65.9% to 68.6% year-on-year, a huge jump from 46.5% in 2022, and targeted interventions in maths saw students make double the progress of their peers in just 12 weeks - to list just a couple.

Which goes to show, to make an informed decision this election year, you'll need to go beyond the daily news and look up the actual data yourself.

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