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Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye says from today schools with ultra-fast broadband can share their fibre connections with their local communities.

“Last November, I announced that the government had agreed to progress schools with ultra-fast broadband having the option to become digital hubs for their communities. I am delighted to confirm that this can now happen, with the Ministry of Education releasing its policy and guidelines today,” Ms Kaye says.

An expanded Pasifika initiative Power Up for NCEA 2014 has launched this week, following a successful introduction last year, to help Pasifika students with their NCEA study Education Minister Hekia Parata says.

The initiative, which focuses on developing Pasifika family education plans to help students and their families prepare and study for NCEA, is already beginning to show results in markedly raising achievement.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has welcomed new figures which show more New Zealand children are participating in early childhood education before starting school.

The latest figures show the early childhood education (ECE) participation rate has increased to 95.7 per cent for the year ended December 2013. That’s an overall increase of 0.5 percentage points from the same time last year.

Around 1,000 more young people remained in education at age 17 and more young people achieved NCEA Level 2 because of Youth Guarantee programmes, a new Ministry of Education report shows.

The first Youth Guarantee Monitoring Report (2010-2012) shows that Youth Guarantee programmes have been successful at increasing the retention of at-risk young people in education and raising their achievement.

The number of students leaving school with an NCEA Level 2 qualification has seen a significant increase across the board in 2013, says Education Minister Hekia Parata.

The provisional results for 2013 show that 76.8 per cent of students left school with at least NCEA Level 2, compared with just over 74.3 per cent in 2012.

That’s an increase of 10.3 percentage points since 2008.

Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye says 2000 schools have now registered their interest in joining the Network for Learning (N4L) managed network, with 150 already connected.

“This Government is investing $211 million to provide schools with safe, predictable and fast internet with uncapped data, content filtering and network security services,” Ms Kaye says.

“We are focused on ensuring every student can benefit from technology to achieve their best, no matter where they are in New Zealand.

Education Minister Hekia Parata today congratulated New Zealand’s top students on becoming the New Zealand Scholarship Award winners for 2013.

“Last year almost 11,000 students participated in New Zealand Scholarship examinations, with 2,386 students achieving a scholarship. These students are scheduled to receive almost $3.7 million towards their further study over the next three years,” Ms Parata says.

The monetary awards for the 2013 the New Zealand Scholarship Award winners are:

Minister Responsible for Novopay Steven Joyce today released the reports on complaints and notifications received in regards to Pay Period 22 and 23 of the schools’ payroll.

Pay Period 22, which was paid on the morning of 22 January, paid 60,638 people a total of $140.26 million. The report for that pay shows complaints and notifications were received regarding 0.18 per cent of staff across the country, 13 staff were notified as not paid, 60 were overpaid, and 34 underpaid. Affected staff were from 68 schools or 2.77 per cent of schools in the payroll system.

A new website aimed at acknowledging the life-long impact that teachers have on their students’ lives has been launched today by the Education Minister, Hon Hekia Parata.

“‘Inspired by U’ is a website designed to recognise and celebrate teachers and educators who have made a difference to their student’s lives,” Ms Parata says.

Thank you Mayor Wallace for your kind introduction; and thank you also Dr Caroline Seelig, I am very pleased to be able to join you for the launch of the Hutt Valley Primary Science Education Network.

I congratulate Open Polytechnic and Hutt City Council on their contribution to nurturing science in schools. 

I know all of you here today will agree with me when I say we cannot underestimate how important science and innovation will be for the future of New Zealand.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has welcomed the first meeting of the working group that will recommend the best design detail for the four new teacher and principal roles, announced by the Prime Minister at the beginning of the year.

The new roles will provide better career pathways, recognise the highest quality of teaching and leadership, and raise the quality of learning and student achievement for all our children and young people.

Education Minister Hekia Parata today announced the establishment of a Taskforce that will free up schools to focus more on raising student achievement, and identify regulations that are obstructing this.

The Taskforce is part of the Government’s confidence and supply arrangement between the National and Act parties, who are working together to identify significant improvements in school performance.

The first of five Partnership Schools | Kura Hourua will be opened today in Auckland by Prime Minister John Key. 

Partnership Schools are part of the Government’s confidence and supply arrangement between the National and ACT parties, who are working together to identify significant improvements in school performance.

A $200 million insurance settlement for earthquake damage to Canterbury schools is an important confidence boost to the education sector in the region says Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee, Education Minister Hekia Parata and Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye.

Mr Brownlee says today’s settlement between the Ministry of Education and Vero Insurance is one of the largest insurance pay outs in New Zealand’s history.

Education Minister Hekia Parata today announced members of the expert panel and judging panel for the Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards.

“The Prime Minister’s Education Awards provide an opportunity to publicly recognise, celebrate and share highly effective education practice to lift the status of the teaching profession and drive improvements for all children and young people,” Ms Parata says.

The settlement of legal action by the Ministry of Education against CSR Building Products Ltd over weather-tightness of school buildings is further good news for New Zealand schools, Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye says.

“While the CSR product is only on a small number of schools, I’m very pleased to see the industry responding sensibly and allowing settlement to be reached without the need for court action,” Ms Kaye says.

Education Minister Hekia Parata says the Green Party appeared to be completely unaware of what happens every day in schools up and down the country when it wrote its latest policy ideas.

“We already have around 300 nurses working with virtually every school in the country and with a particular focus on low decile-schools.

“We already provide social workers for every decile 1 to 3 primary school in the country, under the Social Workers in Schools scheme.

Education Minister Hekia Parata says the wider education profession will play a key role in further developing details of the $359m education investment initiative announced by the Prime Minister yesterday.

“The initiative, which proposes to introduce four new roles in our schools, will further help to recognise highly-capable teachers and principals, keep good teachers in the classroom, and share expertise across schools,” Ms Parata says.

The Government’s $359 million investment in education over the next four years will support teachers and principals to lift student performance in every school, Education Minister Hekia Parata says.

The investment will create four new teaching and leadership roles in schools - Executive Principals, Expert Teachers, Lead Teachers, and Change Principals - and was announced today by Prime Minister John Key in his first speech of the year.

“These changes are the next step in our plan to raise student achievement in our schools,” Ms Parata says.

Prime Minister John Key today announced the National-led Government will invest an extra $359 million over the next four years to lift the achievement of New Zealand students at school.

In his first speech of the year, Mr Key says the country is moving in the right direction, with the economy projected to grow faster than most other developed countries and incomes set to rise.

“The Government’s books are on track to return to surplus and we are continuing to deliver what we have promised,” Mr Key says.

Education Minister Hekia Parata and Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye say 212 schools have signed agreements to connect to the Network for Learning (N4L) managed network.

“The pace of connecting schools is gaining momentum. As of today, 212 schools have signed agreements and these communities will be looking forward to being connected in the near future,” Ms Parata says.

“This is great news for our children as they begin the new schooling year over the next couple of weeks.

Minister Responsible for Novopay Steven Joyce says a 100 per cent completion rate for schools involved in the End-of-Year process and an accompanying low error rate are tributes to the hard work done by school administrators and Novopay staff and contractors.

Mr Joyce today released the reports on complaints and notifications received in regards to Pay Period 20 and 21 of the schools’ payroll - which are the End-of-Year pay periods.

Education Minister Hekia Parata says that students can visit the battle sites of World War Two, and enter a nationwide multimedia challenge as part of a revamped package to champion excellence in Māori education and leadership. 

“To ensure the Māori Battalion’s legacy endures, the Ngārimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Board is offering new and exciting ways to grow students’ understanding of the triumph and tragedy of those brave young men,” Ms Parata says.