Its Official: statistics prove Labour Leader Chris Hipkins, NZ Education Minister from 2017 to 2023, trashed the education of a generation of Kiwis.

The Leader of the Opposition, Labour MP Chris Hipkins, was Education Minister from 2017 to 2023. Over that time the proportion of children leaving school with NZCEA Level 1 plummeted from 89% to 82%; with NZCEA Level 2 plummeted from 80% to 72%; with NZCEA Level 3 from 51% to 47% and with University Entrance from 56% to 53%. With a record like that, I suggest Hipkins resign as an MP and take up the job of Vice Chancellor at one of our Universities, like his mate, Grant Robertson did at Otago. Robertson was best man at Hipkins wedding in 2020. Why not make it a grand slam & become the two best, leading men of our education system? The pay's great - Robertson's is over $600,000, even though he hasn't taught, nor published in learned journals, let alone done a PhD. Nowadays relevant work experience is not required. Life experience is fine. Maybe Chippy could be VC of Victoria University - then he can stay in Wellington, walk to Beehive Bellamy's for lunch, & keep advising how to run education for youngsters. Keep 'em online & locked down to keep 'em out of trouble; ain't it right, Chippy? Even though the young had close to zero chance of being hit badly by Covid. Which reminds me not, who was Covid Minister back then?

Sources:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/post-covid-collapse-ncea-and-ue-results-fall-school-leavers-lack-qualifications/HWZWCIQNEBBYNBUUSI2PHDJ67Q/

No wonder Germany has failed: former Chancellor Merkel insults Trump and at the same time reveals she doesn't know what is a property developer.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has written a book full of insults about incoming US President Trump. You'd think, given the weakness of Germany's economy and military, that its not in the best interests of the nation to attack America's new leader. What's amusing about her book is the line that Trump “looked at everything like the real estate developer he was before he entered politics” - as a zero-sum game. “For him, all countries were rivals in which the success of one meant the failure of another. He didn’t think that prosperity could be increased for all through cooperation.” Which only goes to show that Merkel doesn't know what property developers do. That is, construct new buildings, renovate old ones and sell, lease and rent those buildings. In terms of contribution to value-added GDP, construction & real estate is one of the biggest industries in the world. The Former German Chancellor is utterly confused about real estate development being a zero-sum game: developers are not rivals. One's success does not mean another's failure. The stock market is different. A founder of modern finance theory, Eugene Fama, is quoted as saying of share traders, "Active investment is a zero-sum game. Passive managers don't play the game. They buy something resembling the market as a whole, or some segment of the market, and don't respond to the actions of active managers". What he's saying is that for active share traders who try to beat the market return, the gains for those who succeed in doing so are exactly offset by losses for ones who fail. For a person with the status of Merkel to incorrectly characterize what property developers do, showing such an ignorance about that industry, putting in writing they have the same mentality as active share traders who sit on computer screens all day, is remarkable. Next time she visits Germany's Parliament in the Reichstag building, with its Norman Foster architect designed glass dome, maybe she should take a look and admire it - and contemplate zero-sum games again.