“There’s no way to describe those results as anything other than a total system failure.”
That study showed 22% were at or above the curriculum level, 15% were less than one year below the level and a whopping 63% were more than one year below it.
Among Māori students, 12% were where they should be, 10% were less than a year behind and 77% were more than a year behind.
Luxon – who has frequently said education was a big priority for him – said it would make it harder to hit National’s target for 80% of students to be at or above their curriculum levels by 2030.
“Having said that, we’re not changing the target. It just means we’ve got to be more committed ... we don’t have time to muck around here.”
In response to the announcement, Labour leader Chris Hipkins – a former education minister – said the Year 8 students of today started school when national standards was in place “and we are still playing catch up”.
“I’m pleased to see Christopher Luxon has committed to bringing forward Labour’s curriculum changes and is paying for teacher training and development. He should take the handbrake off school property builds and get rid of his government’s terrible charter schools bill too.”
The Government’s action plan for the quarter includes more moves on truancy and decisions on the school property inquiry it called as a result of cost overruns and delays in delivering school buildings.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the maths move would be accompanied by $20 million for extra professional development for teachers to help ensure they were ready in time, as well as twice-yearly testing.
She said the problem with the old curriculum was that it was too vague and did not include specific benchmarks for when students were supposed to have mastered different maths skills. The new maths curriculum would be more prescriptive, and testing would ensure parents and teachers knew who were falling behind.
The party’s conference in Manukau wrapped up after Luxon’s speech, which also touched on National’s moves in the law and order and economic areas.
Luxon delivered an unapologetic defence of law and order moves such as three strikes, sentencing changes, and youth offender boot camps.
He said he had no compunction about those changes and took aim at critics suggesting a tough approach on sentencing or boot camps might not have the impact desired.
“New Zealanders have a right to feel safe. And that right trumps any interest in giving violent and repeat offenders an early release just so they can continue to prey on our communities.”
Luxon said afterwards that he believed the party was “in good heart and energised”.
The party has set a goal of returning to the mid-40s in the polls by 2026 after sitting at 38% since the election – but Luxon was not keen to talk about whether that was realistic.
He said there had been good renewal in the party in the last few years and he was focused on delivering on what it was elected to do.