Stanford says new curriculum will help kids get the knowledge they need ‘to be successful in life’

Wednesday, 29 October 2025

Education Minister Erica Stanford says the new curriculum will help kids get the knowledge they need “to be successful in life”.

Stanford told Newstalk ZB that “knowledge builds on knowledge builds on knowledge.”

Her comments come a day after the government released its full draft of the curriculum for students in years 0 to 10.

The release has been met with growing criticism from those in the education sector.

RNZ reported that a letter from 44 math experts said the changes to the curriculum “seem more political than educational.”

The letter was critical of the time and money put into rewriting the curriculum, saying the rewrite contained multiple errors.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said they expected to see, “especially for the most disadvantaged kids who come to school without lots of prior knowledge”, a closing of the equity gap.

The letter said there was 'an unrealistic number of learning objectives'.

In another open letter to the ministry and the Education Minister four arts teacher groups said the rewrite had 'dealt us and the arts education community a significant blow'.

Stanford told Newstalk ZB that the curriculum will help kids get the knowledge they need “to be successful in life”.

Stanford said they expected to see, “especially for the most disadvantaged kids who come to school without lots of prior knowledge”, a closing of the equity gap.

The new curriculum is being introduced in “careful” phases to give teachers time to learn it.

Stanford told RNZ that she wanted feedback and was up for consultation.

“If people have got suggestions, now is the time. It’s a huge consultation period, we want it to go out to everybody.”

Stanford said they spoke to a number of people, including principals and experts on what was needed and not needed in the new curriculum.

“Writing a new curriculum is tough thing to do and we’ve had to navigate lots of different peoples views and academics and specialists to come up with what we have.”

Stanford made the updated learning areas for English and Mathematics from Years 0 to 10 available from 20 October, ahead of it being required for use in the first term of 2026.

“The implementation of all other learning areas (Social Sciences, Science, Health and Physical Education, the Arts, Technology, Learning Languages) will be rephased and introduced in two stages in 2027 and 2028.”