Acting Secretary for Education Peter Hughes has been appointed head of the Ministry of Education.

The report plans for the creation of a "Finishing School for New Zealand Political Aspirants - the Cabbage Boat Academy", writes Toby Manhire.

Bullrush and other potentially bruising activities are returning to play as research points to the long-term benefits of scraped knees and the odd broken bone.

A secondary school is sticking to its decision to ban non-donation paying students from its ball, as another parent calls the policy blackmail.

Police have asked schools to warn students and parents off boozy after-parties during the ball season.

There won't be any changes to legislation around the controversial partnership schools despite opposition parties continuing their objections to elements of the bill.

Backers of a controversial scheme to fast-track trainee teachers into classrooms are claiming initial success, with all 16 inaugural graduates passing their first three months as teachers.

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

It's exam time for applicants hoping to run charter schools, the Act Party's competitive prod at state schools which are said to be failing too many Maori, Pacific and other "disadvantaged" kids.

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.

A teacher from an exclusive Auckland school is subject to investigation, understood to be over a mystery illness and claims she behaved inappropriately with a student.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has corrected an answer to Parliament about the resignation of Education Secretary Lesley Longstone.

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

Auckland technology firm Orion Healthcare has launched an initiative aimed at changing the perception of computer science in schools and building the pool of talent the ICT industry needs.

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.

In this environment it almost defies belief that people continue to think they can fool the system, writes Shelley Bridgeman. Anyone who tries to cheat like this is clearly not thinking straight.

Oh-kayyyy. So Mike Williams, a former Labour Party president, calls parents who try to get their kids into higher decile schools "dumb", writes Deborah Hill Cone.

It is many years since our primary schools adopted "new maths".

The country's medical schools are lending support to a music teacher who has sounded an alarm over talented students ditching arts to pursue science studies.

In plain language, the Wanganui Collegiate integration is a taxpayer bailout for a failing private school, writes John Minto.

The number of students being stood down for bad behaviour is at its lowest point for more than a decade.

A private investigator has begun knocking on doors across Auckland in a heightened game of cat-and-mouse pitting prominent schools against desperate parents.

Parents can now pay school fees in some bookstores while picking up stationery packs as the battle for back-to-school dollars heats up.

The nerves of thousands of high school students remain on edge after NCEA results were released yesterday only to be withdrawn and the website shut down.

The release and quick withdrawal of some NCEA results early this morning has upset students and been described by one as "highly unethical".

The recent small surge in reports recounting child poverty in New Zealand make grim reading, writes Paul Moon, especially as so many of the conditions blighting children's lives can easily be remedied.