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.

Education Minister Hekia Parata is refusing to budge on Thursday's Christchurch schools closure and merger deadline in spite of an Ombudsman's Office investigation into the consultation process.

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.

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.

A Herald on Sunday investigation has found nearly half of all early childhood providers surveyed supplement their 20 hours Early Childhood Education with extra "optional charges".

Thousands of Kiwi teachers are at risk of developing serious voice problems because of high noise levels and poor acoustics in classrooms.

The Ministry of Education is reviewing a key test for school pupils amid concerns that it is producing unusually high results.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has been quizzed for the first time since responsibility for the Novopay debacle was taken off her hands.