Erica Stanford: Education Minister on the new secondary school subjects included in the recent curriculum refresh

Senior secondary school students will be able to learn about and use generative artificial intelligence in a range of subjects.

The Government's unveiled a new list of subjects as part of a refresh of the national curriculum from 2028.

It places greater emphasis on STEM subjects and adds civics, politics and philosophy, and media and journalism.

Education Minister Erica Stanford says other countries have offered STEM-based classes to their students, but Kiwi learners aren't at the right level yet.

"Now that we've got this whole reform programme going, we can actually look to the future and go - what does that look like?"

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we've got the list of new subjects that years
eleven to thirteen students will be able to choose in
the curriculum shakeup. They include Civics, Politics and philosophy, Media
journalism and communications, further maths, and Electronics and Mechatronics. Erica
Stanford is with us. Hello Erica, Hello, how are you
very well? Thank you? Is there a theme here? You
adding these subjects for a particular reason?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Look, there is. There is certainly a STEM theme. You'll
be able to see that in other countries. We compare
ourselves to offer things like further maths and data analysis,
but we don't do that because we haven't had the
ability to. Frankly, we just haven't had kids wore at curriculum.
And now that we've got this whole reform program going,
we can actually look to the future and go, well,
what does that look like if we've got more kids

(00:44):
who are at curriculum and in these STEM subjects and
further maths is something that lots of other countries offer
but we don't. So there is a bit of a
STEM theme with the electronics and mechatronics further maths. There's
also applied maths, which is you know, maths for people
who want to go into the trades. So really good
solid maths. But isn't your insane calculus that many people

(01:06):
find difficult?

Speaker 1 (01:08):
What about civics? Why is that in there?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Look, it's something that I think that's been called for
for a very long time. I remember talking about it
when I was at university, myself being interviewed on it
by the news about why we didn't teach civics and
schools and there are many schools out there who have
kind of cobbled bits and pieces of other standards together
to try and create philosophy and politics and civics courses.
But this will be a whole year's curriculum worth of those,

(01:34):
and I think it's about time.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Have you guys dropped agriculture.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
No, it's being created as a industry led pathway, So
it'll be sort of your food and fiber agriculture standards
or curriculum that will be strengthened and aligned with what
industry want, and also aligned with tertiary qualification. So those
lucky students doing that will come out with not only
a secondary qualification, but also potential level two and three

(02:01):
tertiary qualifications as well.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Now just on what's going on at the moment with
the primary and secondary school teachers and the fact that
some of them are striking, others are thinking about strike.
Are you guys in government going to limit the ability
of public workers to strike.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Look, it's not something that it's in my a bit
of things that I look at it. It's Judith Collins,
Minister Collins. She hasn't spoke, she hasn't spoken to me
about it, So I'm not aware of any work that's underway. Look,
I say it is frustrating because in good faith we've
put literally everything on the table and said, look, this

(02:38):
is the total quantum and let's work within it to
make sure that it works for you. And you know
we've met their demands. We've already put a whole lot
of money into three quarters of a billion into learning support,
you know. And I hear Liam Rutherford from the Nzity
Eye on the news saying, oh, it's not about pay,
it's about learning support. It's like, well, we just had
the biggest boost in learning support in a generation, three

(02:59):
quarters of a billion dollars. That answered almost everything that
teachers wanted. More teacher aides, more learning support coordinators, more
money for high needs. You know, it was a huge,
significant package, so it just feels like the stands keep
sort of shifting.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
I can understand your frustration, Erica. Thank you very much, Erica, Stanford,
Education Minister. For more from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive, listen
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