Elizabeth Rata: Extracts from Submission to the Consultation on the Draft English Curriculum

Language and Trust in the Curriculum

Political interests control the curriculum’s language when disciplinary authority is usurped by ideologies. This happened to the New Zealand curriculum from the 1990s. Within a tightening straitjacket of permitted language, words were disconnected from meaning. George Orwell described this ideological tactic as thought corrupting language and language corrupting thought. The solution was to let meaning choose the word.

The Te Matawai Maihi Maori Strategy and Implementation Approach launched by Cabinet Directive in December 2018 illustrate what happens when words choose meanings to serve ideologies. Te Maihi Karanua’s three Audacious Goals were to drive the meaning of public policy. The goals were truly audacious with ‘Aotearoatanga’ intended as the outcome for Audacious Goal One – a transformation of what New Zealand is as a nation.

NZCPR Newsletter: Transforming Education

Education has been described as a passport to the future - as endless generations of New Zealanders can testify. Its transformational powers have the ability to pivot students from lives of disadvantage to futures of opportunity and prosperity.

That’s no doubt what was in the mind of Nelson Mandela, when he said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

But that’s also why extremists attempt to turn education into an indoctrination machine to radicalise children with their brand of social justice poison.

David Lillis: Shakespeare in the English Curriculum?

A Draft Curriculum for Comment

The Ministry of Education has made available its draft New Zealand Curriculum for English, Years 7 – 13 and for Mathematics and Statistics, Years 9 – 13. Each is a knowledge-rich curriculum and so we can be very encouraged that New Zealand is now receiving subject-level curricula that will help to enable first class education for all students of every background and across all schools. However, the capability of teachers to deliver a knowledge-rich New Zealand Curriculum across all subjects may need further development and possibly we must address Initial Teacher Education. At present, the underlying philosophy of university teacher education may not provide the best fit with the new curriculum approach.

The draft curriculum for English is available for comment until 13 June 2025 (Ministry of Education, 2025a). That for Mathematics and Statistics has a more limited timeframe, and is available for comment until 28 April (Ministry of Education, 2025b). A description of the design of the draft curriculum for English is given in the appendix to this article.