National education spokeswoman Erica Stanford was central in developing her party's new policy, announced today. Photo / Mark Mitchell
National education spokeswoman Erica Stanford was central in developing her party's new policy, announced today. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The National Party is expected to outline more of its education policy today after leader Christopher Luxon announced his party would rewrite the New Zealand curriculum if it wins the election.
It follows the Herald’s launch yesterday of Making The Grade, a series on the challenges facing our education system.
Luxon, speaking to media yesterday, revealed aspects of his party’s Teaching the Basics Brilliantly education policy, which included outlining what knowledge and skills primary and intermediate schools pupils must cover each year in reading, writing, maths and science.
“At the moment, one curriculum level can span several school years, which makes it difficult to identify and help children who are falling behind,” Luxon said.
“Evidence shows children’s abilities are often underestimated and therefore the looseness in the New Zealand Curriculum means some Kiwi kids are learning the building blocks of reading, writing and maths later than they should.
“The curriculum also adds a significant workload for teachers who are constantly having to work out what to teach and when.”
Luxon told RNZ that National’s changes would bring New Zealand in line with other western countries.
“For example, in England and Australia, you learn addition and subtraction in year 1. In New Zealand, it can be anywhere between years 1 to 5. If you’re learning algebra, it’s year 5 in England and Australia but in New Zealand, it’s anywhere from year 6 to 10.”
National leader Christopher Luxon described the current state of education as "alarming". Photo / Jed Bradley
Luxon said National would be careful not to narrow the curriculum.
“But I can tell you right now when I see the average 15-year-old in New Zealand is a year and a half behind where a 15-year-old in New Zealand was 20 years ago with their knowledge based on maths, that’s a problem.
“When they are three-quarters of a year behind on reading and writing from our own students 20 years ago that were 15, that’s a problem. When we’ve dropped out of all the top 10 countries on maths, reading, and science, and writing, that’s a big problem for New Zealand.”
He said people needed a lot more than “Labour’s curriculum refresh”.
“We must be more ambitious for our children.
“If New Zealand wants to turn around declining achievement and ensure every child makes consistent progress, we need a curriculum that provides clear and detailed guidance to teachers and parents on what students should be learning each school year.”
In the Herald’s first installment in the Making The Grade series, it cited a 2020 Unicef report that found over a third of our 15-year-olds did not have basic proficiency in literacy and maths. It’s one of a series of international and national reports which have shown New Zealand students are falling behind in the core subjects of reading, writing, maths and science.
Universities became so concerned at the inability of undergraduate students to write an essay or understand basic equations that they called for independent numeracy and literacy standards as part of NCEA. Pilot tests have since shown only one in three students passed the writing component, while around two-thirds passed reading and numeracy tests.
