In August 2023, the New Zealand Initiative published ‘PRESCRIPTION FOR PROSPERITY: 2023 BRIEFING TO THE INCOMING GOVERNMENT‘. In the education section, it is easier to count what hasn’t been done.

The first call they make in that section is to amend the Education and Training Act, by making academic achievement the sole priority for school boards. This has been done. The proposed changes to section 127 make it the “paramount objective”. Furthermore, reference to local curriculum has been removed, a change the Ministry’s advice in April, 2024 cautioned against, saying the Act’s current “provisions about local curriculum are to ensure the school gives effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

That advice was not taken.

Instead, while Te Tiriti is present as an objective in the proposed amendments to the Act, it is now a supporting one, not of equal importance as the Act currently positions it. Giving effect to Te Tiriti is therefore legislatively relevant in the amended Act only when doing so supports academic achievement in the new knowledge-rich curriculum developed by the MAG and those it approved to make up the curriculum writing teams. For English Years 11-13, that was Rata’s hand-picked team of six, including two from Auckland Grammar.