Caleb Anderson: The Unlearning of Education: How NZ Schools Lost Their Way

For decades, New Zealand boasted an education system that was world class—a place where foundational knowledge, critical thinking, and academic rigour, were paramount considerations.

Walking through a school today, however, it is hard not to feel a profound sense of loss. We have witnessed in real time the slow, methodical, deliberate, and calculated erosion of traditional academic standards. These have been replaced by a "child-centred" philosophy that, in practice, seems to focus on everything except the core disciplines of reading, writing, and mathematics.

Judy Gill: How does Diocesan School for Girls give effect to the Te Tiriti o Waitangi?

Observations from an Open Day visit to one of New Zealand’s highest-performing schools

A visit to the Open Day at Diocesan School for Girls in Epsom — widely regarded as the top-performing girls’ school in New Zealand.

I attended the Open Day at Diocesan School for Girls in Epsom.

Caleb Anderson: This thing we call education

By the end of the term of the previous (Labour) government, education in New Zealand had reached crisis point. Erica Stanford deserves praise for some much necessary curriculum reforms, but she is only half way there, if that.

In this opinion piece I am speaking only about curriculum reform, not about education reform more generally, which has its own set of problems.

Ryan Bridge: What was the point in fees free?

Reading this story this morning about fees free - you've got to wonder how the policy got through the boffins in wellington.

It has, by all accounts, failed to achieve it's objective.

Caleb Anderson: Humility and the tyranny of certainty

Sometimes I wonder if the biggest problems we face in the West today are our lack of genuine humility, and our preoccupation with the pursuit of certainty (in the form of absolute conviction).

Is it possible that we have forgotten what humility is, and how elusive, and unwarranted, certainty can be (or necessarily is)?

Judy Gill: The Eden Myth in New Zealand Education

New Zealand’s education system now teaches children a moral mythology presented as history. This article exposes how modern values were repackaged, environmental destruction erased, and ancestry elevated into authority — without debate, evidence, or consent.

Caleb Anderson: Top prize at this year's prize giving goes to ...

The present government inherited an education system in freefall. Its achievements in the education domain after two years of government significantly outstrip achievements by any government in over forty years.

Without delay the government initiated programmes and policies ...

Judy Gill: What “Giving Effect To Te Tiriti” Means in Schools

What does “giving effect to Te Tiriti” actually mean?

Across New Zealand, schools are declaring that they will “give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

Many parents assume this means teaching New Zealand history or acknowledging Māori culture. In reality, in modern policy language, it means something far more structural.

Caleb Anderson: The American Founders and the lessons we refuse to learn

The oft repeated statement that "Those who forget history are likely to repeat it" ... resonates now more than ever.

Humanity, irrespective of time, place, beliefs, or any other point of difference, seems incomprehensibly blind to the experiences of those who have gone before us, even (and sometimes especially) where these are amply documented, as well as somewhat indifferent toward those who will come after us, and who have to deal with the messes we make.

Barrie Davis: Maori Myths - Colonial Realities

Ani Mikaere published He Rukuruku Whakaaro in 2011 which considers the effect of Maori customs, obligations and practice (tikanga) on European law, legal processes and teaching in New Zealand.

Mikaere’s book has had indirect influence on legal and policy developments through academic, judicial, and iwi-led channels. Her critique of Crown Law and advocacy for tikanga as a legal framework has contributed to acceptance of tikanga Maori in New Zealand’s legal system. Her writings have influenced iwi negotiators and Waitangi Tribunal members and are used in law schools, public sector education, and public service cultural competency programs.

Steven Gaskell: Classroom or Chapel?

Kiwi Kids Now Getting Schooled in Māori Gods Instead of Maths

Chris Hipkins may call the Government’s decision to remove the Treaty clause from school boards a “victory for Hobson’s Pledge,” but it’s really a victory for democracy and for restoring common sense to education. Parents and volunteers join school boards to help kids learn, not to interpret 1840 documents or preach ideology. Education Minister Erica Stanford is right: the Crown, not local school committees, is accountable for the Treaty.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do we still need home economics on the NCEA curriculum?

I have to be honest with you, because it's been a little while since I sat in the home economics class in Tuakau College - so there is a fair chance that my experience is a little out of date by about 20 years and I might just make a fool of myself with what I'm about to say next.

But I do not understand the angst about Erica Stanford dropping home economics from the NCEA curriculum.

Wendy Geus: Manipulative teachers must get back in the classroom and back unflagging minister

As the left and media wage war against this government and parents and students lose faith.

Decades ago there was an expression called the 'play way' used to cynically describe an apparent lack of structure for new entrants in their first year at school.

Professor John Raine: Waipapa Taumata Rau University Course Now Optional for Some – Don’t Take a Victory Lap Yet

Exemptions to the Ruling

On October 15th 2025, the University of Auckland Council voted to make its compulsory Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) paper optional. Act Party MP, Parmjeet Parmar, said, “This is an enormous victory for student choice over ideology”, and “The compulsory nature of this course was always about pushing Treaty ideology onto students, with no regard for their interests.”

David Lillis: Unpublished Paper on our National Science Curriculum

Nearly a year ago I wrote a piece for a special edition of a journal. It was submitted as a commentary rather than as a research paper, but was roundly rejected. In fact, the journal’s reviews of this piece were scathing in the extreme.

However, here I give this paper for those interested in discussions on New Zealand’s science curriculum. It is essentially the same as the original manuscript but slightly longer because the original limit of 3000 words precluded the inclusion of certain detail. It embodies only a few additional ideas and a light edit here and there for a public audience.

Judy Gill: Teaching Children to Think — or Teaching Them What to Think?

New Zealand: Indoctrination in the Classroom

From early childhood onwards, New Zealand children are not being taught to question. They are being taught to accept.

Three powerful narratives dominate their schooling:

Barrie Davis: Trump Boy Marries Trad Wife

Regarding a report he had written for the PPTA annual conference, “Responding to Extremism in the Classroom: Online Lies and Real World Harm”, art teacher Paul Stevens was reported in The Press (“'Trump boys' in NZ classrooms: Teachers warn of rising student extremism,” 24 September 2025, here), as follows:

Judy Gill: Are Our Schools Teaching NZ Values — Or The UN Agenda?

New Zealand’s education system has shifted far beyond teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Increasingly, it mirrors the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), embedding international agendas into the classroom. The result is that our children are being shaped by global policy frameworks rather than by the values of a free and secular society.

Three themes dominate: the climate apocalypse, Te Tiriti principles, and Te Ao Māori spirituality. Each aligns neatly with UN education targets.