Hipkins cited poor student uptake as the main reason behind the change: only around 200 students from 10 schools around Aotearoa take NCEA Latin, and only about 25 at level 3.
However, even if it's a language whose spoken applications have long since died off, Latin is still all around us - from the legal system, to medicine, zoology, botany, religious studies.
Thousands of words we use in everyday conversation trace their roots back to Latin.
So, is there still merit in offering a subject which might not land you a job, but might enhance your understanding of the world?
And what does a "well-rounded education" actually entail?
Victoria University PhD student Josh King studied Latin for nearly a decade – from third form at Auckland Grammar right up throughout university.
He's now finishing off a PhD in history; so, in one sense, that was wasted time: studying Latin didn't land him a job.
But King says viewing learning through this narrow lens is misguided.
"I feel there is an element of linear progression expected from education: the idea that you go to school, and you learn things at school that will enable you to either go out and get a job directly, or go to university to do a degree that leads directly to a job.
"Someone who studies science at school does a bachelor of science at university, and you leave university and become a scientist. You could say the same for someone who studies medicine, or law, or whatever.
"There are a swathe of subjects that … don't lead so neatly and tidily into a job; as a result, I feel they are the ones that are asked to make sacrifices and cuts."
These subjects, King says, are often in the humanities: areas that encourage what you might describe as "soft skills", of critical thinking, inquisitiveness, logic.
There's no job for a logician the way there is for a dentist, but King says to view education simply as a vessel for people to learn to be a good worker is to overlook the beauty of learning for learning's sake.
- RNZ
