Derek Cheng writes:
“Almost all socio-economically disadvantaged children fell behind in maths last year by Year 3, with 95% below curriculum level and 70% more than a year behind.
The proportion for this cohort of disadvantaged kids was almost as high for writing: 91% were already below curriculum level in Year 3, with 80% already more than a year in arears.
That’s according to the latest foundational assessment data, for 2025, which shows the inequity gap widening not only in maths and writing but also in reading, where two out of three disadvantaged kids in Year 3 were more than a year behind.
For reading, in 2023, 52% of socio-economically disadvantaged Year 3 students had fallen more than a year behind curriculum level. In 2025, it was 67%.
The proportion for the same cohort for Year 6 kids was 61% in 2023, barely moving to 62% in 2025. For the same grouping of Year 8 students, the leap from 2023 to 2025 was from 56% to 66%.
For writing, in 2024, the Year 3 “more barriers” cohort who were more than a year behind was 56%. Last year, it swelled to 80%.
The share of the same cohort for Year 6 kids was 74% last year (up from 65% in 2024), and for Year 8 students it was 79% (up from 69% in 2024).
The pattern is mirrored but far less pronounced for maths, when comparing the cohort’s 2023 and 2025 data: 67%-70% for Year 3 and 79%-83% for Year 8.
Year 6 bucked the trend, though the proportion of socially disadvantaged kids more than a year behind remained stubbornly high: 84% in 2023, and 82% in 2025.”
The article does contain some positive points for the current government’s change in approach for some children and in some situations.
Genuine change will come – as I have stated before:
That’s according to the latest foundational assessment data, for 2025, which shows the inequity gap widening not only in maths and writing but also in reading, where two out of three disadvantaged kids in Year 3 were more than a year behind.
For reading, in 2023, 52% of socio-economically disadvantaged Year 3 students had fallen more than a year behind curriculum level. In 2025, it was 67%.
The proportion for the same cohort for Year 6 kids was 61% in 2023, barely moving to 62% in 2025. For the same grouping of Year 8 students, the leap from 2023 to 2025 was from 56% to 66%.
For writing, in 2024, the Year 3 “more barriers” cohort who were more than a year behind was 56%. Last year, it swelled to 80%.
The share of the same cohort for Year 6 kids was 74% last year (up from 65% in 2024), and for Year 8 students it was 79% (up from 69% in 2024).
The pattern is mirrored but far less pronounced for maths, when comparing the cohort’s 2023 and 2025 data: 67%-70% for Year 3 and 79%-83% for Year 8.
Year 6 bucked the trend, though the proportion of socially disadvantaged kids more than a year behind remained stubbornly high: 84% in 2023, and 82% in 2025.”
The article does contain some positive points for the current government’s change in approach for some children and in some situations.
Genuine change will come – as I have stated before:
- When, as a nation, we truly enhance parenting and significantly increase the proportion of children arriving at school ready to go.
- When we get significantly more than 48% of children at high Equity Index schools fully attending.
- When the Equity Index spend is much greater that a maximum of 3% of a school’s funding to help students overcome disadvantage (EQI spending is a mere $250m out of a VOTE Education of approx. $7.5b.
- ….. among other things.
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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