John Gerritsen

Thousands of foreign students are expected to have to stay in New Zealand over the summer holidays because there is no quarantine plan to let them return if they leave.

Victoria University and Manukau Institute of Technology have reported hundreds more mid-year enrolments than normal as job opportunities dry up.

Principals want foreign teachers exempted from the border ban so they can plug staffing gaps caused by the teacher shortage. Audio

Ministry of Education figures show 101 schools have dropped the Kiwi tradition of letting children start school on their fifth birthday - opting instead for "cohort entry".

The measures are part of a national push to dramatically reduce long-standing failure rates, particularly among Māori and Pasifika students.

Rising violence in primary schools has reached the point where one-in-four teachers feel unsafe in their own classroom - double the figure three years earlier, a national survey shows.

The number of new students training to be school teachers has been falling despite good pay settlements last year.

Massive fee rises at Australian universities are expected to affect New Zealand students and universities.

The fees-free policy persuaded hundreds of students to enrol in university last year, but some did not cope well with their first year of study, research indicates.

The institutes that make up the new national polytechnic made a multi-million-dollar deficit for the third consecutive year.

Anger at a jump in registration fees has prompted secondary teachers to vote no confidence in their own professional body, the Teaching Council.

Principals say schools have no idea where some of their students have gone since the lockdown and the Education Ministry has stepped in to help.

English language schools are warning their $500 million industry is in a critical state because of dwindling student numbers.

Travel restrictions are creating uncertainty for thousands of foreign school children who came to New Zealand for education and now cannot leave.

School zones and school choice allow rich schools to skim the best students from poorer communities, concentrating disadvantage in some schools, a Ministry study has found.

Hundreds of thousands of children returned to school and early learning today, squirting litres of hand sanitiser and putting carefully-developed hygiene plans to the test. Video

Teachers and principals are bracing themselves for all manner of reactions when 800,000 school children return to class today for the first time in eight weeks.

Trade training gets a $1.6 billion Budget boost aimed at trainees and their employers.

Principals are pondering how to handle things as they prepare to reopen schools under alert level two on Monday.

Timetable changes, zoom meetings and a lot more hand washing will be features of the new-look schooling awaiting more than 800,000 children and teachers under alert level 2.

Education leaders by turns slammed and praised the Education Ministry's response to the Covid-19 pandemic at Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee today.

Immigration New Zealand figures show the number of foreign students in the country has fallen sharply in the past six weeks.

Victoria University is considering slashing staff pay by a fifth or moving them to a four-day week to help it cope with a forecast $50m drop in income, while Lincoln University is asking staff for a 5… Audio

From what families have told schools, only a few children will return when they partially reopen next week.

Health fears and lack of demand are likely to keep many early childhood centres shut when schools partially reopen next week.