Erica Stanford: Education Minister on the delayed roll out of the new science and social science curriculums

A major roll out of the Government's new curriculum's been delayed for some subjects following months of pressure from the education sector.  

The new curriculum for science and social sciences will be phased in across two years, beginning at the start of 2027.  

The new health and physical education, the arts, technology, and languages curriculum will also begin to be rolled out in 2029.  

Education Minister Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking science and social sciences are just as important as maths and literacy.  

She says the reason Social Sciences have been prioritised is that it's so knowledge rich, which is so important for young people. 

Stanford told Hosking students can't afford to go back to the old curriculum.  

She says parents are stopping her in the street and say they're noticing a difference – achievement is improving and results are turning around. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seven change your plans around education. So science and social

(00:03):
science changes in that school curriculum are not now going
to be mandatory until twenty twenty nine, which is two
years later than planned. So what happened here? Erica Stanford
Education Minister back with us morning, Good morning mate. The
unions are claiming it's unworkable, threatened quality they win. Is
that how it plays?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
If I listened to the unions, we wouldn't have done
any of these reforms. In fact, we'd still be teaching
children how to read by looking at the picture and
guessing the word. You haven't got it quite right there
in your intro. We're going to be rephasing again. We've
already rephased once before. We're going to be rephasing slightly
to introduce social science and science from next year for

(00:41):
two years, giving ourselves two years to implement those well
with fidelity, and then everything else will come in twenty
twenty nine. So those are the arts and the technology
and health and PA and the like. So I've been
on the ground listening to the profession for the last
few months, especially the Auckland Primary Principles who went out
and surveyed all of their members last year for me

(01:02):
and provided really good feedback. So I asked the Ministry
for advice earlier this year. I received it in early
early April, but I wanted to back our teachers to
make sure that we get the phasing right right.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
So, what's specifically different or unusual about science and social
science that you're going to now do it differently from
what you one thought you were going to do. And
two other subjects, well.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
We already have prioritized certain subjects, so obviously literacy and
numerousy so English and maths were first out of the blocks,
and you'll remember we bought maths forward slightly because of
the results. Science is a course subject, as you know,
required all the way through right up until year ten,
and we'll be making some announcements about science next week.

(01:48):
Social science. The reason that social science is the one
that you would prioritize, and this is part of the
feedback from the profession as well, is that it's massively
knowledge rich. So you've got lots of strands in their
world history, New Zealand, history, geography, Civics, and society. Financial
literacy and knowledge is so important for young people and

(02:11):
their critical thinking and importantly their comprehension of what they're reading.
So a really knowledge rich topic was important to prioritize.
But I've been dealing very closely with the local Principles
associations and ran this through them to make sure that
this sort of rephasing was right and we've got the
subjects in the right way. Ok.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Does this stick? Because twenty twenty nine for mandatory it's
two elections away. You may not even be there.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
The social science and science will be gazetted for use
from next year, so they'll be required. Those are the
ones in twenty twenty nine. Yep, they will be after
this election. Of course, I still plan to be the
Minister of Education, Mike, because it's really important to me
that we get these reforms through. Parents are already saying

(02:59):
to me in the street and they're like, we are
noticing a difference. They are seeing what I'm seeing in
the early results, and that achievement is improving. We are
turning results around and we can't afford to change tech
and go back to you know, let's guess the word
by looking at the picture.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
No. Two quick things Immigration twenty fourish thousand, is this
egy or at twenty four thousand. Are we a little
bit settled on this? And is it going to be
an election issue? Do you think.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
We're up to twenty seven thousand. It's an increased line.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
If it's not one hundred and thirty, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
No, no, no, no, But it's still it's still lower
than that the March rolling average over the last twenty
years a week.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I'm just trying to work out what's going on with
with lux and then as social cohesion and Seymour and
Peters and you know, I'm just I'm not interested in
bitching about immigration between now and November. That's all neither
am I.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
As you know, I thought that the Prime Minister laid
out a really good clear position, which is actually migrants
are incredibly important to our economy and our social fabric,
but also we need to make sure that we're maintaining
a social license. And as I spoke to you about,
I think a week or so ago, labor really put
a strain on that social license by the IRV twenty

(04:17):
one program and the mass immigration one hundred and thirty
five thousand, and we need to make sure we've got
a good balance that we're putting Kiwi's first full jobs
while also making sure that businesses have access to the
skills that they need, that we're getting the right skills
to build a productive economy. That's what we have been
doing for two years, and the Prime Minister was laying

(04:37):
out exactly that position. A smart immigration system that works
for New Zealand, that gets that balance right to make
sure that we maintain the social license and it shouldn't
be an election issue because we do not have the
same issues that they're seeing overseas because of what we've
done over the last two years.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
All Right, Yeah, a good week. You appreciate it. Eric
and Stanford in Education and Immigration as it turns out.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Or from the Mic Asking Breakfast.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
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