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.

The chances of the most disadvantaged students getting any benefit from a PPP school may be no better than the toss of a coin, writes John O'Neill.

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.

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The nerves of thousands of high school students remain on edge after NCEA results were released yesterday only to be withdrawn and the website shut down.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

A visiting cyber-bullying expert is urging schools to make students take driver licence-style tests before they can take mobile phones and tablets to class.

Using the NCEA framework, the employment-focused model will allow students to choose a career and work towards gaining the skills they need to succeed in that job.

As students look to next year, the Herald begins a week-long investigation into why so many are leaving school without the skills they need.

North Shore students have been banned from hugging during school hours because too many of them were consistently arriving late to their classes.

Swotting for NCEA exams has been made easier with the very device parents and teachers hold as the enemy of study - teenagers' cellphones.

The Ministry of Education and the NZQA are being called on to release national school statistics at the same time as students get their marks back.

Two co-educational secondary schools in Dunedin plan to cut teacher numbers as the fall in school-age children starts to affect the secondary sector.

The charter schools advisory group wants those who have no teaching qualifications to be given official registration - a call at odds with Govt policy.

The Cambridge exam system is under spotlight as prestigious schools are called to meeting with the country's largest university.

Pies, hot dogs and cookies feature strongly in school tuck shops, a survey has found, suggesting efforts to improve the quality of the school food supply have failed.