Here's what the Government wants to teach kids, and why it's so controversial
Wednesday, 29 October 2025
The Ministry of Education has released a new draft curriculum for years zero to 10, with Education Minister Erica Stanford saying the overhaul will deliver a much needed “refresh” to the 20-year-old curriculum.
But some educators are worried.
The teachers union said it had been a “rushed rollout” which would cause “chaos” in schools.
On the other hand, the ACT Party celebrated the draft curriculum.
It said it had successfully got rid of “Marxist” ideology from the curriculum. Its leader, associate education minister David Seymour, celebrated the removal of the Aotearoa Histories programme - which was set up by the Labour Government to ensure every school was teaching about New Zealand’s history.
The curriculum design has become a heated political topic, with parties campaigning and arguing about what New Zealand’s youngest minds should be taught.
So here’s what the draft curriculum actually covers:
It’s split into eight areas of study: English and Te Reo, mathematics, science, social science, health and physical education, the arts, technology, and learning languages.
The draft mathematics, English and Te Reo Rangatira curricula were released earlier in the month.
This week, Stanford released draft curricula for the rest of the subject areas. This included the social science topics, which involved history.
The ACT Party had campaigned on changing the history curriculum, saying it was too focused on the history of New Zealand and impacts of colonisation.
The new drafts also included health and physical education, another hot political issue. That subject involved discussion about sexuality. The coalition Government axed sexuality education guidelines when it came into power, in a move which some mental health workers called deeply concerning given growing concern that young people don’t understand consent.
These are the areas covered in the new drafts:
Science
Learning about physical science (such as physics, space and Earth), and biological science (animals, ecosystems and the body), students will start to identify patterns and systems that shape life.
It starts with students being asked to describe and explore their surroundings and question why things happen the way they do. By year 10, students will be able to “use evidence to critique claims, model systems, explain interactions” and use their mathematics knowledge to evaluate data quality and reason.
Social Sciences
The social sciences cover history, civics, geography and economics.
The overarching goal is to “take students on a journey to understand how people, places, and systems function and change”.
It starts by introducing ideas about the world, cultures and communities “beyond their own experiences”.
“Students are taught to use sources to learn about people, places, and events and to communicate ideas,” the draft for years zero to three says.
Later in primary school, students are taught to read maps, time lines, and about “democracy, rights and responsibilities“.
In intermediate school, students are taught about Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its role as a foundation document. They are also taught about the Pacific region and will “engage with concepts such as identity, power, and change”.
At the start of high school, students will delve deeper into issues which show new Zealand and its place in the world. This includes learning about political ideology, human rights, constitutions such as Te Tiriti o Waitangi, ethics, and power.
Health and PE
Physical education will still involve “movement patterns, activities, games and sports”.
Health education will also cover mental and physical health, including relationships and sexuality.
It starts with discussion about the importance of “rest, hydration, hygiene and movement”.
In intermediate and high school, that expands to cover nutrition, sexual health, and drug use.
Stanford has said there will be teaching about consent, but ministry documents show there’s still debate about how to teach consent.
From feedback, the ministry said: “There was strong support for teaching students about consent, but people’s views differed on the definition of consent and how and when they believed it should be taught.”
The Arts
The Arts cover performing arts, music and visual arts in primary and intermediate. In high school, that expands to dance, drama, music and visual arts.
The ministry said: “The Arts learning area takes students on an increasingly sophisticated journey exploring the rich forms, history, and artistic practices of New Zealand and from around the world.”
Technology
Technology is a very broad subject, covering computer science, design, mechanics and working with materials. This could involve a lot of different activities ranging from making things, to health and safety, or programming and design.
The idea is that through practise and evaluation students will learn how to make and improve their own creations.
By year 10, students will have become more adept at “increasingly complex” projects involving prototypes, research, design and refinement.
Languages
As well as learning how to speak, read and communicate in another language, students will learn the “linguistic, cultural, and sociolinguistic knowledge” of cultures to enable that communication.
“The Learning Languages learning area exposes students to new ways of thinking about themselves and their world and can increase their understanding of their first languages. It can also contribute to the vitality of a language and strengthen cultural connections,” the ministry said.
Why so controversial?
In releasing these drafts, Stanford said it was a “major milestone”.
“This curriculum has been written by Kiwis for Kiwi kids. It is engaging, rigorous, and rooted in the science of how children learn, while celebrating who we are as a nation,” she said.
Over the next six months, the ministry would be taking feedback about the drafts.
But the teachers’ union said that was not enough consultation.
“The new curriculum has blindsided teachers and school leaders,” said Stephanie Madden, the chair of NZEI Te Riu Roa’s Principals' Council.
She called it “eurocentric” and said it was disappointing that te reo Māori wasn’t given more prominence than other languages.
She said the changes to the history curriculum were also concerning, as it had less focus on local history.
The current Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum required that students learned about the area they were in, which would include learning about the mana whenua of their home area. That had been taken out of the new draft for social sciences.
“Whose version of history are we being asked to teach? The previous histories curriculum rightly considered histories as something which were shaped by colonial power and decision-making. Omitting this discourages kids from learning the full history of Aotearoa,” she said.
But Seymour said this change would get the “balance” right.
“I’m proud to say these dismal, divisive and overly political ‘big ideas’ are all gone,” he said.
He said the focus on those issues were “Marxist”, framing history as a “matter of colonisation and class struggle”.
“The relentlessly ideological and cynical history curriculum was turning kids off history. A review by the Education Review Office found children didn’t engage with history that was narrow and local. Yes, they wanted to know their own immediate past. They also wanted to be stimulated by ideas from afar,” he said.
That review found that 90% of teachers thought the Aotearoa NZ Histories curriculum was working well.
It found that Māori and Pasifika students were engaging well, but Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African students were less engaged with the studies.
Dr Garrick Cooper, a Canterbury University Associate Professor of indigenous studies, said it was concerning that subjects had become a political football and was worried education was being drawn into a culture war.
“The last curriculum review it took a number of years, involving consultation with stakeholders and the broader community, which was done across party lines to ensure the product was reflective of a societal consensus about what is important.
“By bypassing that, they are driving something ideological,” he said.
He said education about the history of Aotearoa, and te ao Māori, was not a ideologically radical prospect by nature. And he dismissed the discussion of “Marxism”.
'Everything they don’t agree with becomes ‘Marxism’. They’ve co-opted American political rhetoric. That’s all it is,“ he said.
He said the curriculum changes needed to be bipartisan to avoid drawing students into an election issue.