19/08/2026
Wee rant ahead... feel free to move on if you wish...
Last week we were given some new curriculum documents which had apparently gone through an extensive, albeit at pace, process to have them ready for implementation. Teachers had been consulted and listened to of course, that almost went without saying (without doing too I suspect) but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
Anyway, today after a few days of significant push back our Minister of Education suggested she’ll consider a U Turn and include the phrase ‘climate change’ in the Social Sciences document to ensure that it is explicit, she even mentioned contacting some climate change experts so they could look through the document and tell the ministry where to put the necessary words.
This is problematic for a number of reasons:
1. Why weren’t the climate change experts part of the consultation process in the first place?
2. We were told that this document was the final version (for now) so we could start preparing our planning for 2027 but now I assume we wait until the next iteration comes out?
3. On the call of a vocal few (minority or majority depending on who is telling the story) it seems that a curriculum can be changed- I am pleased that those who complained about this missing concept were heard, it was a ridiculous oversight and should never have happened (How did it happen I wonder? Perhaps all this throwing a curriculum together at pace doesn’t allow for due consideration after all? To be honest I’d love experts to be contacted and given permission to rewrite the whole Social Sciences document, but that’s a story for another day.) What I am concerned about here is the voices that remain unheard. Is this now the curriculum of the squeaky wheel?
4. And if a curriculum can be changed on the whim of a minister or the pressure of an influential group then what does that mean for the fidelity of educational practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand? Yes, being online is efficient and cheap. Cheap is a word I use deliberately. But there is no security in it, in the last two and a half years we have seen what barely bridled ideology can do to a curriculum, imagine what could happen if it is left open to re-iterating without serious checks and balances which appear to be lacking at the moment.
Process is important.
Process builds trust.
Lack of process breaks trust.
Our Ministry of Education, our national curriculum.
Can they be trusted?
