Key recent events for Education in NZ.

– 1. The proposed changes to our national qualifications system:

• A semi-vacuum at Year 11.
• 4 out of 5 subjects to “pass” Year 12.
• 4 out of 5 subjects to pass Year 13. No clear guidance on University Entrance. The Minister, herself, predicting outcome declines in the early years of the changes.Consultation closing on the proposed NZ English Curriculum that, to me, appears highly restrictive and significantly boring – unless you are already over 60yo. https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2025/07/two_major_problems_with_the_proposed_nz_english_curriculum.html

– Marginal improvements in the 2024 leavers data for Lever 2 NCEA, Level 3 NCEA and UE.

– A decline in the NCEA Level 1 pass rates for leavers in 2024. This will set the trend for the next two years. 16% of all students who left the NZ education system in 2024 did not have Level 1 NCEA. For Maori that stat was 28%. To repeat 28% of Maori students who left the NZ education system last year (each of whom would have had at least 3,200 funded classroom hours) had no qualification at all.

– We are starting to discuss “norm-referenced” assessments again. This ignores much of the progress in neuroscience in the last 25 years. A teacher’s job is to significantly improve ALL students – like an athletics coach, dance teacher, music teacher, etc. Heading back to a School Certificate, 50% pass-rate, paradigm is like changing the length of the mile every time an athlete runs under 4 minutes.

– For Erica Stanford to be a good and effective Minister of Education – not just a populist – she has one job. She needs to imagine the outcomes of our school qualifications system as 100 houses and to ensure that – at each level – all are fit for purpose and excellent to live in. At present 16 houses of 100 at Level 1 are a mess. For Maori it is 28 out of 100. All of her changes so far do little except reinforce the position of the students who would achieve under any system. She appears to have been captured by a self-interested elite.

A truly effective society looks after those who need it the most. Stanford is significantly failing by that measure – and does not appear to have intent or strategy to change that trajecotory. If self-interest and the economy is important for many onlookers – what are the ongoing effects of 28% of Maori students leaving school with no qualifications at all.

alwyn.poole@gmail.com

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