‘We’re not rushing this’ – Stanford on new maths curriculum

Key points:

The Education Minister says the Government is not rushing the introduction of a new maths curriculum, amid concerns from some teachers and principals.

In August, the Government announced it would roll out a refreshed maths curriculum to primary and intermediate school students in four months — a year earlier than planned. It also committed $20 million to developing structured maths for teachers.

This means that the new structured maths curriculum will be rolled out at the same time as its new literacy curriculum. 

Some teachers and principals welcomed the fast track, but others were less enthused. 

Among them was New Zealand Principals’ Federation national president Leanne Otene, who said: “We’ve got a term to bring in not only maths, but also literacy, and I think that’s the key thing here.

“We’ve got two of the most important curriculum areas being hastily implemented. And that threatens to undermine the stability of our schools.”

The New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI) president, Mark Potter, echoed Otene’s concerns.

“We’ve got the literacy and the math, and it’s just unreasonable to expect teachers to do two curriculums at once as well as doing it in a short time frame, and it’s very unreasonable for teachers to have to do this on top of complex demands they still have around learning needs that are yet to be resourced by this Government,” he said.

Speaking to Breakfast this morning, education minister Erica Stanford said there was a difference between “pace” and “rush” regarding the curriculum’s rollout.

“We’re not rushing this. I’ve been thinking about this for years,” she said.  

“We’ve been working, the previous government to their credit as well, on this curriculum for years.”

Standford said a “world-leading, knowledge-rich, year-by-year curriculum” was “in the palm of my hand”.

The minister also said teachers would be “fully resourced” next year, with teacher guidebooks that contained everything needed to implement the new curriculum. She told schools worried about implementing two new curriculums simultaneously to “just get started”.

“We know the trajectory of those kids if we don’t bring this in because 45% of our 14- and 15-year-olds are passing our NCEA numeracy co-requisite.

“It is grim,” she added.

She said the “silent majority of principals and teachers out there have been calling for this”.

“They’re excited about this.”

On Breakfast last week, former New Zealand Principals’ Federation President Perry Rush said: “One of the things that is really important for governments to remember is that any change that is imposed upon a profession is never going to win the day.

“You are not going to win the hearts and minds of teachers.”

Responding to the comment, Stanford said she had had “excellent” interactions with teachers and used them to help develop and implement the new curriculum.

She insisted the Government was taking the sector along with it.

“I am providing them with every resource they need to effectively teach this in the classroom, and by the way, as I’ve said, just make a start.”

According to NZEI, a survey conducted by the union in the first two weeks of this month showed 77.5% of principals and 73.7% of teachers said change was “happening too fast to be effective”.

“Overwhelmingly, school leaders and teachers said the under-resourcing of a wide and complex range of learning needs of around 30% of their students was the key issue that needed the Government’s attention, and which made the pace of the curriculum changes unmanageable,” a spokesperson said.

The survey also found 67% of teachers and 63% of principals said the curriculum changes would “not do anything to meet the real needs of kids in their school”.