Source: Radio New Zealand
NZEI President, the head of the country’s largest education sector union. NZEI supplied
Education union NZEI Te Riu Roa is questioning why the consultation period on a draft Māori curriculum is only half as long as its English counterpart.
“It’s pretty much an impossible deadline, really. I mean, you cut the deadline in half, we’ve got till April to respond,” president Ripeka Lessels said.
The Ministry of Education opened the draft Te Marautanga o Aotearoa framework and Year 0-10 wāhanga ako (Pūtaiao, Waiora, Toi Ihiihi, Hangarau, Ngā Reo, and Te Reo Pakeha) for consultation from 28 January until 24 April 2026.
However, consultation on the Year 0 to 10 draft New Zealand Curriculum opened three months earlier in October 2025. The consultation period closes at the same time as Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, alongside the New Zealand curriculum, make up the national curriculum statements, Lessels said.
The shorter consultation timeframe would impact on teachers, who would have less time to digest and respond to the changes, she said.
“It’s gonna be a challenge, unless [teachers] have subject specific association members beside them to actually take them to go through and read through that stuff, so that they can, you know, download it all and be able to respond appropriately.”
Lessels said the government and ministry had prioritised speed over experience and it would lead to less kaupapa Māori embedded in the curriculum.
“I think this is the only chance that most of the sector will get, is to respond in this time frame … but that’s true also of the New Zealand curriculum, there’s been very little consultation with the subject association around curriculum development since the beginning of this government.”
This curriculum would also apply to the majority of Māori students who were not in Māori medium education, but who Lessels said had a right to be taught in their language regardless of their choice of school.
“What’s good for Māori is good for everybody … tamariki Māori are still part of the education system in Aotearoa New Zealand and we still, and the government, still have an obligation to improve education, as they are trying to do, improve education for all tamariki Māori.”
Lessels said the previous curriculum documents had a lot of input from Māori in the education sector, but input on the new draft had been limited.
“I’ve been going through the Te Reo Rangatira document, and, you know, it reads very much like the Pākehā document, and that’s because this minister has pretty much demanded what it should look like, and that they should be the same. You can see that, it’s in the document, you can see that in the Te Reo Rangatira document, the step stages and phases in that document kind of mirror the New Zealand curriculum, the Pākehā document.”
In a statement the Ministry of Education said it was its intent to release the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa side by side.
“We decided that further work was needed on the draft framework and Years 0-10 wāhanga ako of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, to make sure we released the best possible version for New Zealanders to consider and provide feedback on. This is an important milestone in Māori-medium education, and we needed to get it right.
“We recognise that kura and schools using Te Marautanga o Aotearoa have a shorter consultation time period than those using the New Zealand Curriculum, so we are making it possible for kura, schools and whānau to provide feedback through multiple avenues. In addition to the feedback forms for the framework and each wāhanga ako, we are also:
– holding webinars that anyone can attend and provide feedback at
– arranging workshops through Kahu Pūtoi to discuss the drafts, and
– holding local workshops through the Curriculum Advisory Service.
“The final National Curriculum is expected to be released in mid-2026, and we intend the final versions of both curricula to be available together at that time.
“We believe the three-month consultation period, supported by multiple feedback opportunities, provides enough time for kura and schools to engage with the draft Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and provide feedback. The consultation closes on Friday 24 April 2026.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
