Three new entries in our Stat of the Summer Competition

Nominations for the Stat of the Summer are still open, and here’s the most recent three nominations:

What does relatively few mean?

Cam Slater nominated a quote from the NZ Herald:

“Auckland has become a city of extremes, containing more than half of the country’s total students in both the richest (decile 10) and the poorest (decile 1) schools, with relatively few in between.”

His comment was:

“Really…with with more than half in decile one and and decile 10 that means nearly half are in between not “relatively few”.”

How many?

Stephanie Mills nominated a quote from the Dominion Post:

Hundreds of teachers have criminal convictions and many are not fit to teach

Her comment included:

Given the Teachers Council says there are 100,000 teachers, and (say) 25 teachers were de-registered in each year, this can hardly lead to the conclusion that “many” are unfit to teach.

Thomas Lumley picked up on this and blogged yesterday on the topic, giving some context to the statistics.

Confusion

Sammie Jia nominated a quote from the NZ Herald:

Departing students owe more than those who stay

His comment included:

I am confused by the title and the content here. The article showed some comparisons but i dont understand the author’s purpose.Graduates with more loan tend to go overseas to earn more to repay or just avoid to repay. The title makes me think as long as graduates leave NZ they will owe more.

Go add your nominations, or if you would like to discuss these, add your thoughts below.