Lets compare apples with apples

Have you noticed how willing politicians are to compare NZ schools to overseas schools – for example Maurice Williamson in the latest IT brief “agreed the country needs a better focus in the education system and marvelled at the ICT skills he witnessed Singapore school children attain. “Once Singapore students came here to learn under the Colombo Plan,” he mused. “But I think Singapore can now do a Colombo Plan in reverse.” I attended that gathering and I certainly DIDN’T hear him also say “and I believe NZ should invest the millions of dollars in education as Singapore has done”. I’ve read Allan Luke and he has quite clearly indicated “don’t try this at home unless you have the Singapore government to back you” Another politician who appears to like taking ideas out of context is Rodney Hide who says we should have education vouchers like Sweden but he doesn’t also say lets have Sweden’s tax rate!

On the road to nowhere