Erica Stanford: Education Minister on the subject refresh in the national curriculum

The Education Minister says a lot of schools were already trying to teach some of the new curriculum subjects. 

A new list of study topics has been unveiled as part of a refresh of the national curriculum from 2028. 

It places greater emphasis on the STEM subjects and adds Civics, Politics and Philosophy, and Media and Journalism. 

Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking a lot of schools were trying their best to teach some of these subjects in the NCEA system. 

She says they were trying to cobble together credits from different subjects, to make topics like Civics, Philosophy, and Politics work. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, Hurricane Stanford's back. Along with the National curriculum refresh,
we get new subjects civic electronics and computer science and
for laughs, journalism, toss in a bit of AI as well.
Education Minister Erica Stanford is with us, good.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Morning, good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Why these specific subjects and how do you choose them?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, the Ministry of Education have given me quite a
lot of advice. But there's also some of things that
we've been talking about for a very long time, like Civics,
but we've never done and there's been many groups have
called for a Civics to be taught in our schools
and so that was a no brainer. And then there
are other things like further maths, which is taught in
other similar jurisdictions but we don't have. It's in the

(00:38):
Cambridge curriculum for example. And then applied Maths was something
that we knew we needed to have in order for
those young people who are doing a industry lead subject
to have a math subject that was specific to more
of a vocational pathway.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Okay, the actual roll out in the detail behind it
and the need for specialist teachers and who gets to
choose the subjects and what's gool, they turn up and
et cetera. When do we know that.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
We'll have more detail out in the next month about
the criteria for each subject and the description, I should say,
and they'll be available early next year, so people will
actually be able to see the new curriculum early next year.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Involved the industries, And does that reassure us that these
are proper subjects that will lead somewhere?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, most of these subjects lead on to tertiary pathways.
If you look at, for example, the politics, philosophy, and civics,
so that is a pathway that you can carry on doing.
Many schools were already offering some of these things. They
were trying to sort of cobble together credits from units
from different subjects to create these pathways. So, for example,

(01:47):
philosophy has been something that's been taught in some schools,
you know, Civics and politics and other schools. So we're
trying to create really good subjects for schools who were
already doing them.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Three things. While I've got you related matters. The growing
pushback that appears to be building around general changes to NCEEA,
Is this a fight building?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
No? I don't think so. I think actually things that shifting.
I was talking to a principle yesterday who said many
of the principals who signed that original letter are now
have changed their minds, which is encouraging. Also, I'm meeting
with the associations, all of the principal associations to talk
them through the proposal, and there's a lot of misinformation
that's been put out there. We're just and as we

(02:29):
go through that, people feel a lot more comfortable, and
also they understand that there is there will be more
consultation to come. But I'll point out that when Hipkins
went through his level one changes, I was just looking
at the nz CER report after he proposed his changes
thirty five or thirty four, it was percent of the
sector supported them. It is always a huge debate and

(02:50):
it was no different then. I think they took out
a full page Herald article against him at the time
and it was similar concerns. So it is always up
for debate. But actually the feedback that I'm getting as
overwhelmingly positive. But we will certainly make some changes, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Okay, the pace scrap any closer.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I can't answer that because I'm obviously not in the negotiations.
I hope so we in good faith put literally everything
on the table and said, hey, look, let's bargain on this.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I have a good weekend. I don't have time for
the third party you met with Willow Jene Prime. So
maybe that goes somewhere, maybe it doesn't. For more from
the My Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd
be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.