Nau mai haere mai – welcome to your latest newsletter.

Declining scores by New Zealand school students in international tests for literacy, science and maths recently prompted the Principals’ Federation to call for more curriculum leadership from the Ministry of Education. It’s a big and complex issue, but Massey University educationalist Christine Braid suggests one area the ministry might make a noticeable difference would be better guidance on the teaching of handwriting and spelling. These seemingly simple skills, she writes, are actually the foundations on which so much higher learning is built, and declining ability could be a “canary in the education coal mine”.

There is plenty more to read here and on our homepage, including tourism expert Michael Lueck’s proposal for a genuinely fair green tax on visitors, and Alexander Gillespie’s comprehensive analysis of what has changed in New Zealand since the atrocity of March 15, 2019 – and, sadly, what hasn’t.

Until next time, mā te wā and all the best.

Finlay Macdonald

New Zealand Senior Editor & NZ Editor: Politics, Business + Arts

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Has a gap in old-school handwriting and spelling tuition contributed to NZ’s declining literacy scores?

Christine Braid, Massey University

Kiwi school kids are not consistently taught letter formation or spelling the way they once were. But these simple skills are part of the foundations of higher learning.

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A green tax on long-haul flights favours rich tourists. NZ needs a fairer strategy

Michael Lueck, Auckland University of Technology

A departure tax based on length of stay, not distance travelled, would be a more effective sustainable tourism strategy.

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Two years on from the Christchurch terror attack, how much has really changed?

Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato

As New Zealand marks the second anniversary of the March 15 atrocity, the general terror threat has increased and doubts persist about police and security agency preparedness.

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Why New Zealand should invest in smart rail before green hydrogen to decarbonise transport

Susan Krumdieck, University of Canterbury

Green hydrogen produced using New Zealand's mostly renewable electricity sounds like a great idea, but a high-tech smart rail and urban tram network is a more obvious and sustainable option.

Where next for the WHO? kcube - Baytur/Shutterstock

COVID-19: where does the World Health Organization go from here? – podcast

Gemma Ware, The Conversation; Daniel Merino, The Conversation

Plus a round-up of the coronavirus situation around the world marking one year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Listen to Episode 6 of The Conversation Weekly.

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Spending time in nature has always been important, but now it’s an essential part of coping with the pandemic

Catherine Knight, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Even a short walk in nature can relieve mental fatigue and anxiety. With most of us living in cities, we need urban parks more than ever to take care of our well-being during the pandemic.

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Suhayra Aden became New Zealand’s problem because of a dubious Australian law that has since been repealed

Rayner Thwaites, University of Sydney

The alleged Islamic State 'terrorist' was deprived of her citizenship under a now-abandoned automatic process, without any Australian official evaluating her case.

From our international editions

‘What are you afraid of ScoMo?’: Australian women are angry — and the Morrison government needs to listen

Camilla Nelson, University of Notre Dame Australia

Ending Canberra’s toxic culture is the rallying point, but women are also taking to the streets because these failures are connected to a systemic culture of sexism in law, politics and policy-making.

Why defamation suits in Australia are so ubiquitous — and difficult to defend for media organisations

Brendan Clift, The University of Melbourne

Porter claims even though he wasn't named in the ABC article, he was easily identifiable to many Australians. For the ABC, the defences to defamation are notoriously difficult to establish.

5 remarkable stories of flora and fauna in the aftermath of Australia’s horror bushfire season

Will Cornwell, UNSW; Casey Kirchhoff, UNSW; Mark Ooi, UNSW

Community scientists have been photographing animals and plants in the months after the Black Summer fires. Each observation is a story of survival against the odds, or of tragedy.

After the insurrection, America’s far-right groups get more extreme

Matthew Valasik, Louisiana State University ; Shannon Reid, University of North Carolina – Charlotte

New members are joining and some are leaving – as right-wing groups reorganize, scholars of the movement foresee increased polarization, with a risk of more violence.

Ancient leaves preserved under a mile of Greenland’s ice – and lost in a freezer for years – hold lessons about climate change

Andrew Christ, University of Vermont; Paul Bierman, University of Vermont

This ancient ecosystem showed that the ice sheet had melted to the ground in northern Greenland within the past million years.

‘Every day is war’ – a decade of slow suffering and destruction in Syria

Ammar Azzouz, University of Oxford

After ten years of conflict and destruction, what is left of Syria and what hope is there for its people?

One Indonesian industry has boomed during the pandemic: seaweed farming

Alexandra Langford, Australia-Indonesia Centre; Hasnawati Saleh, Australia-Indonesia Centre; Scott Waldron, The University of Queensland; Sulfahri, Australia-Indonesia Centre

Satellite data reveals increased seaweed production during the COVID-19 pandemic

Provinces should act fast to avert a teacher shortage now and after COVID-19

Nathalie Reid, University of Regina; Jerome Cranston, University of Regina

Provinces have struggled to mitigate the COVID-19 health concerns of full-time and substitute teachers. The need for substitutes has increased, but fewer are available.

Shigella outbreak in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside ‘a disease of destitution’

Ben Huang, University of British Columbia

Infectious dysentery, usually found in developing countries with poor living conditions, is turning up in Vancouver's most marginalized neighbourhood.

Why children are prime targets of armed groups in northern Nigeria

Hakeem Onapajo, Nile University of Nigeria

In the past five years, the rise of banditry and terror attacks have had devastating effects on children in northern Nigeria.