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Monday, May 15, 2023

Point of Order: Govt will spend $400m on schools and classrooms......



........but Hipkins and Tinetti should be bothered by the quality of the curriculum, too

It looks like there were a couple of stragglers, when ministers of the Crown were mustered to unleash a bundle of pre-Budget press statements under an embargo that was lifted at 10.30am yesterday.

Later in the day, another press release related to the clean-up of damage done by Cyclone Gabrielle was released. It came from Forestry Minister Peeni Henare, who announced $10.15 million from Budget 2023 would be appropriated to clean up of slash and debris in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay and for slash management traps to contain debris from entering waterways in the first place.

This morning the PM and Education Minister Jan Tinetti brought news of Budget 2023 investing $300 million to build 300 new classrooms (“$200 million for permanent roll growth, and $100 million to address shorter term pressures on school rolls”). An additional $100 million will enable the construction of up to four new schools and new school expansions.

What kids will be taught in those classrooms and the worth of the qualifications they gain from their schooling should be worthy of the government’s interest, too.

St Cuthbert’s College in Auckland has informed parents that next year’s Year 11 students would not take part in NCEA Level 1 but rather work towards the school’s own bespoke Year 11 Diploma.

The reported reason: the school has so little confidence in the new NCEA Level 1 curriculum it is ditching the qualification in favour of its own Year 11 diploma next year.

The latest news of government spending intentions can be found on the Beehive website:

Latest from the Beehive


Budget 2023 builds on the Government’s record of investing in our schools and improving the lives of young people right across New Zealand.


The Government is supporting the clean up of slash and debris in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay and aims to remove up to 70,000 tonnes of woody debris from river and catchment systems, Forestry Minister Peeni Henare said.

Point of Order gives credit to Kiwiblog for alerting us to the NZ Herald report on St Cuthbert’s lack of confidence in the new NCEA Level 1 curriculum.

David Farrer writes –


The Herald reports:

A top Auckland private school has so little confidence in the new NCEA Level 1 curriculum it is ditching the qualification in favour of its own Year 11 diploma next year.

St Cuthbert’s College informed parents on Wednesday that next year’s Year 11 students would not take part in NCEA Level 1 but rather work towards the school’s own bespoke Year 11 Diploma.

Principal Justine Mahon said several of the school’s senior academic staff had been on Government advisory panels for the Ministry of Education’s proposed changes to NCEA and had become increasingly concerned by what would be taught in 2024.

“We don’t think it provides sufficient, in-depth learning for our students,” she told the Herald.

This is concerning, Farrer comments.

Their teachers have been involved in the changes to NCEA and what they have observed is enough to make them want to ditch it. Of course only private schools have that flexibility.

Mahon also believed “fundamentals” like the writing requirement and mathematics had been “dumbed down”.

They have to, otherwise too many will fail!

Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton

1 comment:

Anonymous said...


The curriculum is now a propaganda and brain-washing tool - that is why Hipkins and Tinetti see no reason to change it.