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The New Zealand Initiative calls for a renewal of the New Zealand curriculum
A Wellington-based think tank has called for a revamp of the New Zealand curriculum, describing the current system as unscientific and causing a decline in student achievement.
The New Zealand Initiative argues that the curriculum should be evidence-based rather than based on the “philosophy” of child-centered learning.
Author Briar Lipson said that despite an increase in per pupil spending, New Zealand’s international rates of return had been falling.
According to the report, The New Zealand Education Hoax: How Bad Ideas Ruined a Once-World-Leading School System, In 2000, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked 15-year-olds in New Zealand third in the OECD in reading and mathematics and sixth in science literacy.
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By 2018, both reading and mathematics had fallen to sixth and 19th, respectively, while scientific competition had remained stable.
“This was a big drop considering that in reading and science, the average student’s achievement has dropped by the equivalent of about three quarters of schooling,” Lipson said.
“The drop was even worse in math, where students lost the equivalent of nearly a year and a half of schooling.
“Repairing the damage caused by blind adherence to a faulty philosophy and restoring teachers and their subject knowledge to the core of education will be crucial if we are to solve the most serious problems of this country.”
Education Ministry Deputy Under Secretary Pauline Cleaver said there is no short-term answer to the long-term decline in achievement.
“PISA measures the competencies of students towards the end of their compulsory education and a large number of factors influence their progress and learning during this time.”
He described PISA as a useful measure, but said it does not measure how well students are performing compared to the New Zealand curriculum.
“The NCEA is a measure of student performance compared to curriculum expectations and, since 2009, there has been an 11 percent increase in those who achieved at least NCEA Level 2 or equivalent and this improvement it is even higher for Maori and Pacific students. ”
RNZ
NZ First education spokesperson Tracey Martin speaks to RNZ ahead of the coalition talks after the 2017 elections. Video first posted in 2017.
The current Education Works program included an update to the national curriculum, as well as a revision of the NCEA, to ensure continuous improvement in educational outcomes for students.
“The report presents a number of suggested recommendations that we will consider, but we note that New Zealand already has an evidence-based approach to teaching and improving literacy learning.”
University of Auckland Early Learning Laboratory principal investigator Annette Henderson said it was important to strike a balance between knowledge and child-centered learning.
Children needed to develop knowledge, for example in math, reading and problem solving. But the evidence showed that children learn best when they are interested in what they are learning.
