A primary school's board of trustees has been taken over by the Govt, after refusing to implement controversial National Standards data - a move labelled alarming and heavy-handed.

Schools are illegally pressuring difficult students to leave and an independent authority needs to be set up to review expulsions and exclusions, a community law advocate says.

The Novopay debacle is being blamed for delaying the release of National Standards data - an excuse described as odd by a leading unionist.

Parents should have the option to drop their 4-year-old off at school, says a principal who is set to open a preschool on his school's grounds.

Schools are bracing for the biggest changes to their funding in seven years, as officials measure how rich or poor their pupils' families are.

At 3pm every weekday it’s a circus outside most primary schools in the country as parents vie for a parking space so they can collect their children.

Children's marks in National Standards will be artificially lowered this year because last year's assessment was too easy.

The Government might look at merging the boards of small neighbouring schools that struggled to get enough suitable candidates for this week's nationwide board of trustee elections.

Editorial: The Teachers Council, the registration body that ought to speak with the authority of the New Zealand Law Society or Medical Association, never offers a view on educational issues.

School children are being taught how to read and write by watching Hollywood blockbusters with subtitles.

The Government will invest $80.5 million of operating funding over four years to lift educational achievement, including funding for behaviour programmes.

United Future leader Peter Dunne has said he won't support a bill to introduce charter schools. However, the bill will go ahead with National, Act and Maori Party support.

There are no plans to replicate the way Christchurch schools have been rationalised elsewhere in the country, Education Minister Hekia Parata has assured primary school principals.

The Education Minister has accepted there's room for improvement after a rare move from the Ombudsman to investigate Education Ministry consultation processes

It is now two months since the Government's trouble-shooting minister, "Mr Fix-it" Steven Joyce, was sent into the Education Ministry to sort out Novopay.

The head of secondary school principals has criticised the Government for not doing enough to help schools combat the growing problem of bullying.

The Ministry of Education is bloated, inefficient and making the jobs of principals more difficult, says the outgoing president of the Secondary Principals' Association.

I really didn't think the Novopay debacle could get any worse - but the decision by Talent2, the company that runs Novopay, and the Ministry of Education to sic debt collectors on to teachers who have been overpaid was mind-numbingly stupid.

Preschool educators are calling for an urgent review of government funding after the Herald on Sunday revealed a large number of parents are paying extra for what was supposed to be a free service.

Steven Joyce, the minister in charge of Novopay, says debt collections have ceased following revelations teachers were being chased for overpayments as low as $22.

The Novopay debacle has hit a new low, with revelations the payroll company and debt collectors are chasing teachers for overpayments as low as $22.

Schoolchildren have got worse at basic arithmetic skills since the introduction of new teaching methods designed to lift the country's poor performance in maths.

Almost half of New Zealand preschools are charging parents for what is supposed to be a free government-funded service, according to a Herald on Sunday investigation.