Erica Stanford: Education Minister on the Government's new maths curriculum

The Government's charging ahead with plans to shake up maths in primary schools.

Prime Minister Chris Luxon revealed data which he says shows four out of five Year 8 students aren't at the expected level.

He's bringing forward a new math curriculum to Term 1 next year, assessing twice yearly and a $20 million boost for teachers' professional development.

Education Minister Erica Stanford says it's a massive problem.

"High school principals tell me when I walk in the door - Erica, the first thing we have to do with our Year 9s - or third formers - is teach them their times tables because they don't know them. Without fail, it's every high school I go into."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the big headline out of the nets get together
over the weekend is that their new plan on maths
is being implemented early. And you don't need to be
a maths genius to see the numbers are shocking, just
twenty two percent of the year rates rechieving at benchmark.
So a curriculum and money to teach the teachers. Education
Minister Erica Stanford is with us. Very good morning, Good morning,
manch Just for clarification's sake, this is what you were
going to do anyway, simply implemented a year earlier.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's right. This was actually in our Teaching the Basics
brilliantly version one plan before the election that we pulled
out because it was just a little bit too much
for the election campaign. But now it's time to implement
it urgently.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
How urgently is it being implemented in the sense, where
did these numbers come from, When did they arrive on
somebody's desk? And how many meetings were called to say
we need to change the plan.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
We got the data about two weeks ago. It was
that the assessments were done last year, towards the end
of last year, and for the first time we're actually
seeing data of kids and your eighte where they should
be rather than over many many years. So it's the
very first time we've ever actually seen how our year

(01:03):
eights before they go into high school are actually doing.
And the results were dismal. And so that meant taking
that plan and putting it in place for term one
next year.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
So let's look at the size of the turnaround that
you promised sixty three percent of more than a year behind.
If it's Mari at seventy seven percent more than a
year behind. You've said that you want eighty percent at
or above by twenty thirty. You've got six years to
do it.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, that's a whole cohort of kids through primary school,
and that was always our plan. We thought we could
get there if we've got six years of kids at
primary school learning under the new curriculum, the science of learning,
explicit teaching, no more of this. Your kid turns up
the school and decides what they want to learn. So
we thought that with six years, where you get our
kids there. I'm still confident we can. We just have
to push a bit harder and a bit faster.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
How much of this is just about math. Some of
us just struggle with maths. I don't care who teaches it.
Do we have comparison with other countries of a similar
ilk that shows that they're sup rear to us, and
obviously so or does everybody in the Western world to
some degree struggle with maths.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Now we've compared ourselves to other countries who are doing
a much better job than us, who have been actually
climbing the ranks and the OECD, whereas we've been dropping
for many, many years. And I don't believe for a
second that there are some people who just can't do math.
That is completely untrue. Everybody can do maths. It's just
the constant and having wonderful teachers and great curriculum and

(02:28):
great resources. And we've seen other countries like Singapore and
Australia and the UK surge ahead because they have those
things right and we don't, and we are going to
get them right under this government.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
How much of it's the curriculum versus how much of
it's the teacher's ability to teach the curriculum, it's a
bit of both.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
The curriculum has been vague, it hasn't been year by year,
it's been a multi year band. So teachers can decide
what they teach rather than having explicitly said you must
teach these things in this order in this year, so
when they go on next year, they've mastered these basics
so they can then get have success in the following year.
The other thing is, and we know from all of

(03:09):
the reports that have been done recently that the system
has let teachers down and that they are not confident
and mass generally at primary school. So there's two things
we have to do professional learning and development and also
provide them with the teacher guides and resources and workbooks
for students, which means in the short term they can

(03:30):
use those while they're undertaking their PLD.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Unions are already this morning saying they do fine, that's
what they're paid to do. They quote unquote, there was
a unionist on this morning said they do it well.
When you've got a union saying they do it well
and the results say that we don't, you've got to
fight on your hands.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Haven't you. Well, they're completely out of touch. And I
tell you what, I have been around the country for
the last couple of years talking with principles of high
schools and primary schools and they all agree that we
have a massive problem and maths. Nobody agrees with the
union apart from the union, and I don't think we
should be listening to them high school to high school principles.
Tell me when I walk in the door, Eerica, the

(04:09):
first thing we have to do with our year year
nine or our third format is teach them their time
tables because they don't know them without fail every high
school they go into. So there is a problem, and
they unions can have their heads in the sands. But
I'm going to move on despite that and implement our
plans because it has to happen.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Corrareciate time very much. Erica Stanford, who is the Education
minister with us this morning. They're astonishing numbers, aren't they.
Sixty three percent more than a year behind. Fifteen percent
are less than a year behind, so they're behind but
just under a year. So sixty three plus fifteen let's
do some maths. You know what the number is at
seventy eight. So virtually, I mean, for all intents and purpose,

(04:47):
virtually everyone's behind. And so they've got to do something
between now and twenty thirty to get virtually everyone from
being behind to eighty percent being at or above. Extraordinary
isn't For more from the Mic Casking Breakfast Listen live
to News Talk SETB from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio