Education

The Tertiary Education Union is surprised it was not included earlier in discussions surrounding the proposed merger of Telford Rural Polytechnic and Lincoln University.

One early morning, an elderly man walking on a beach came across a mass of starfish, stretching as far as the eye could see, stranded on the beach by the tide. Nearby, a small child was running back and forth from the beach, picking up starfish and throwing them into the water.

Vehement and vocal opposition in the Otago region to the Government's National Standards in primary and intermediate schools has prompted the New Zealand Educational Institute to organise a second public meeting in Dunedin to discuss the topic.

Jobs will go at the Education Ministry as it seeks to find $25 million in savings.

Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson has waded into debate about the demise of the Phoenix Centre and has asked the Ministry of Education to fund a replacement service for the city's youth.

The Ministry of Education wanted to close alternative education centres last year and programmes may not yet be out of danger.

An independent review of the Phoenix Centre shows there are significant concerns about the effectiveness of the service - not only within the Ministry of Education, but also among some schools, health and social services, and Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour.

Anger continues to boil over in Otago secondary schools about the closure of the Phoenix Centre, with one principal raising questions about whether the independent report was just a formality.

The closure of a Dunedin service to help secondary school pupils with behavioural problems has been described as short-sighted and a tragedy.

The only conclusion to draw from the closure of Dunedin's Phoenix Centre is that their opinion is not valued by the Ministry of Education, Dunedin secondary school principals say.