1. It is highly predictable that the teacher unions and most of the teaching sector will oppose most changes proposed by a center right government. However the Minister has neither reduced their power – or engaged well if she is not willing to do that.
2. The curriculum changes have been driven by a very narrow group of people with very slim engagement, understanding of our system, and endorsement from the wide sector. The qualifications and experience of the education sector has been significantly ignored by a “do what you are told to do” attitude from the Minister.
3. A very narrow group of Principals – with NDAs – drove the initial decision to re-design the NZ qualifications system.
4. The current group of students going through NCEA (which will continue up until 2030) have largely been ignored. From the 2024 LEAVERS data 15.9% of students were leaving school (after 13,200 funded hours) with no qualifications – and very little hope. The stats for 2025 leavers may well be very close to 20% of leavers with less than LEVEL 1 NCEA.
5. For 2024 Leavers with UE – 61% of Asian students had that qualification, 43% of European, 24% Pasifika and 19% Maori. What we are currently hearing is that some students are simply “not suited to higher level study” … dig a bit deeper and people often mean brown/poor students. Cabinet papers also declare that these students will be disadvantaged by the new qualifications.
6. Regular attendance is still dire with just 68.8% of NZ students meeting the 90% threshold. For Maori it was 54.6% and for Pasifika it was 57.9%. This is on the way up but has a long way to go.
7. The Charter School roll-out has completely bombed with a range of tiny, niche, schools and the overall numbers being boosted by the Crimson online school figures. No State school has converted – which is stunning re the settings when you consider that none of the previous Charter Schools have come back into the fold. After nine years of endeavor on NZ’s CS model, completely out of alignment with the successful US version, we see that just 0.2% of students have this opportunity in NZ.
8. The Minister was embarrassed and forced into a reversal on increasing home school regulations. Parents are sovereign – not the government.
9. Nothing has been done to enhance the efficacy of parenting in NZ from conception until 5 years old (school entry). Until this happens most intervention funding will be wasted as a very signifcant number of children are starting school years behind where they should be developmentally – and will never catch up.
10. Too many resources that are being supplied into the NZ system are through closed processes and given to overseas publishers. Millions and millions of dollars are going to overseas publishers with no understanding of the education needs of NZ – while capable NZ companies are simply ignored.
11. Last and most important … the influence, incompetence and shear absorption of taxpayer funding of the Ministry of Education has not been reigned in at all. The Ministry was largely excepted from Nicola Willis’ budget reductions. The leadership under Hipkins, Ardern, Tinetti is still largely in place. When Hipkins became the Minister there were approx. 2,700 Education bureaucrats. When Labour finished it was above 4,000 and the Stanford/Seymour combination has barely reduced it. It is one of the great examples of David Graeber’s BS jobs – where you employ more people and see a HUGE decline in performance. Which NZ politician has the courage to walk into this institution with a bathroom sink?
Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was sourced HERE
4. The current group of students going through NCEA (which will continue up until 2030) have largely been ignored. From the 2024 LEAVERS data 15.9% of students were leaving school (after 13,200 funded hours) with no qualifications – and very little hope. The stats for 2025 leavers may well be very close to 20% of leavers with less than LEVEL 1 NCEA.
5. For 2024 Leavers with UE – 61% of Asian students had that qualification, 43% of European, 24% Pasifika and 19% Maori. What we are currently hearing is that some students are simply “not suited to higher level study” … dig a bit deeper and people often mean brown/poor students. Cabinet papers also declare that these students will be disadvantaged by the new qualifications.
6. Regular attendance is still dire with just 68.8% of NZ students meeting the 90% threshold. For Maori it was 54.6% and for Pasifika it was 57.9%. This is on the way up but has a long way to go.
7. The Charter School roll-out has completely bombed with a range of tiny, niche, schools and the overall numbers being boosted by the Crimson online school figures. No State school has converted – which is stunning re the settings when you consider that none of the previous Charter Schools have come back into the fold. After nine years of endeavor on NZ’s CS model, completely out of alignment with the successful US version, we see that just 0.2% of students have this opportunity in NZ.
8. The Minister was embarrassed and forced into a reversal on increasing home school regulations. Parents are sovereign – not the government.
9. Nothing has been done to enhance the efficacy of parenting in NZ from conception until 5 years old (school entry). Until this happens most intervention funding will be wasted as a very signifcant number of children are starting school years behind where they should be developmentally – and will never catch up.
10. Too many resources that are being supplied into the NZ system are through closed processes and given to overseas publishers. Millions and millions of dollars are going to overseas publishers with no understanding of the education needs of NZ – while capable NZ companies are simply ignored.
11. Last and most important … the influence, incompetence and shear absorption of taxpayer funding of the Ministry of Education has not been reigned in at all. The Ministry was largely excepted from Nicola Willis’ budget reductions. The leadership under Hipkins, Ardern, Tinetti is still largely in place. When Hipkins became the Minister there were approx. 2,700 Education bureaucrats. When Labour finished it was above 4,000 and the Stanford/Seymour combination has barely reduced it. It is one of the great examples of David Graeber’s BS jobs – where you employ more people and see a HUGE decline in performance. Which NZ politician has the courage to walk into this institution with a bathroom sink?
Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was sourced HERE
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