Source: Radio New Zealand
The Principals’ Federation says it hopes the ministry and Education Minister Erica Stanford will listen, however say the minister has been choosing to talk with other people in the education sector. RNZ / Nick Monro
Thirteen education organisations representing thousands of teachers and principals have united to oppose the government’s school curriculum overhaul.
In a letter published on Wednesday organisations including teacher union the Educational Institute, the Principals’ Federation and several subject associations, said the proposed changes were not fit for purpose.
They said the curriculum framework and six draft curriculum documents were not fit for purpose, did not meet the Education Ministry’s own standards, “and represent a profound, unworkable narrowing of curriculum scope”.
“The pace of curriculum change is unreasonable, has layered multiple demands on schools and kura, and has created huge workloads on the sector,” they said.
“This will have significant negative impacts, including impacting on the recruitment and retention of teachers.”
Principals’ Federation president Jason Miles told RNZ primary schools had already introduced new maths and English curriculums, which made huge changes to the way schools taught the subjects, and work on the remaining six learning areas should stop.
“There is a lot wrong with the draft curriculum that has been presented for consultation. It’s devoid of anything to do with Te Tiriti. It is full of knowledge, rich objectives, over 1000 objectives from year zero to eight, they’re not coherent,” he said.
“It’s surface level teaching, it’s tick-charts, it’s knowledge-rich objectives which will be easily assessed. But what we are concerned about is the deeper, capabilities and competencies that are missing from these curriculum.”
Miles said the groups’ decision to make a joint statement was hugely significant.
“We’ve all slammed the direction, the pace, and the lack of genuine consultation, and the government’s rushed wholesale curriculum reform,” he said.
“We’re fundamentally saying that these curriculums cannot go ahead.”
Miles said he hoped the ministry and Education Minister Erica Stanford would listen, however he said the minister was choosing to talk with other people in the education sector.
NZEI Te Riu Roa president Ripeka Lessels told RNZ the minister and ministry had not listened to the organisations so far, but she hoped that would change.
Asked if there was middle ground between the groups’ philosophy of education and the approach favoured by the minister, Lessels said there was still room for talk.
“We clearly do believe that the [government’s] ideologies are in opposition to what we believe is good practice for education and for the classroom,” she said.
“We do believe that some of the things that we believe are driving this ideology are definitely not good for our country and not good for our children and we do believe that if we don’t stand up and have a conversation, then these ideologies may become something that the country has no choice but to take on board.”
Other signatories to the open letter included the Māori principals’ association Te Akatea, the Teacher Education Forum and associations representing teachers of subjects including social studies, physical education, and drama.
It’s not the first time different education organisations had united to oppose the government’s school sector changes.
Multiple principals associations last year published open letters urging the government to slow down its curriculum overhaul and 10 organisations including Catholic school principals and kindergartens spoke out against changes to teacher registration and disciplinary body the Teaching Council.
Principals and teachers spoken to by RNZ this year have warned that while some of the government’s English and maths changes were positive, it was trying to make too much change too fast.
Thirteen organisations signed the letter and the NZEI said others were considering it.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
