John Gerritsen

Tertiary students are hoping a promised government package will help students struggling to pay for essentials like food and power because of the lockdown.

The government's education lockdown package will help when schools resume teaching next week, but a prolonged shut down would cause problems, principals say. Audio

Foreign student leaders warn 60,000 international students here need support - they're a long way from home, worried about families, study and work.

The Ministry of Education has granted some schools an exemption from starting the two-week school holidays on Monday.

The $5 billion foreign student industry is facing a massive downturn with as many as half of this year's enrolments now in doubt.

Teachers are in class today for the last time before the lockdown begins and they are all preparing exactly the same lesson for the nation's 800,000 school children.

All schools and early childhood centres need to be closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Teaching Council chief executive Lesley Hoskin says.

Schools are figuring out how to teach students from home if they are shut down because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Principals are frustrated that parents are refusing to send their children to school for fear of the Covid-19 coronavirus. Audio

Schools are struggling to get enough money to run camps because parents have realised they do not have to pay, principals say.

The government's school donation scheme could open a floodgate of requests for tax rebates on cost payments for things like school camps going back four years.

Schools are struggling to decide if they should go ahead with overseas trips involving thousands of students in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.

They are preparing to lobby the government to require all schools to have a library and to ring-fence their income so money for books and librarians cannot be diverted.

The number of teachers working past retirement age has more than doubled in the past 10 years including hundreds older than 75.

The number of Indians denied study visas for New Zealand spiked last year with 5256 refusals, most of them for polytechnics and private tertiary institutes.

The University of Auckland has frozen all new staff appointments because of the financial cost of the Covid-19 travel ban, with more than $30 million in revenue at risk. Audio

One of China's biggest education agencies, JJL, wants the government to let Chinese students travel to New Zealand despite the Covid-19 travel ban.

Teachers of subjects as diverse as physics, Latin and economics are united in their rejection of the Ministry of Education's proposed changes to NCEA.

One professor says the university's proposal to cut science, computing and engineering courses is extreme and short-sighted, while another says it makes no sense.

Schools are increasingly resisting attempts to make them enrol children who have been kicked out of other schools for violent behaviour. Audio

Enrolments at a Manukau Institute of Technology course have been stopped after it was found students were being marked too leniently.

Universities have asked the government to exempt thousands of Chinese students from its ban on foreign travellers from mainland China. Audio

Schools that are not in the government's donation scheme are worried it will hurt their ability to collect tens of millions of dollars in voluntary payments from families.

Parents have told an IHC survey their disabled children are being bullied at school, many are not getting enough support, and some have been illegally blocked from enrolling altogether.

Schools in the government's donation-replacement scheme have started the year figuring out what to do with their share of payments totalling $63.6 million.