Luxon announces new maths curriculum for primary students

Sunday, 4 August 2024

Primary school children will be tested twice yearly on a new maths curriculum aimed at bringing children up to standard, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says.

Luxon made the announcement in a speech to National Party members at the party’s annual general meeting held at the Due Drop event centre on Sunday morning.

He said the Government had received “shocking new data” on primary children’s achievement in maths last year, justifying the Government’s curriculum overhaul.

“Looking at kids who are about to go to high school, this data shows that just 22% of students are at the expected standard for maths at year eight. That means four out of five are falling behind,” Luxon said.

“And it gets worse: three out of five are more than a year behind.

“Translated into a raw number, that means that last year around 50,000 children getting ready for high school were not at the curriculum benchmark for their age.”

To remedy this, the Government would bring about a new “structured maths” curriculum to be introduced from the beginning of 2025, with teachers resourced to deliver the programme to every primary and intermediate, including through $20 million in professional development.

Twice a year students will be assessed on their performance to this new curriculum, and “small group interventions” would be offered to students who fall seriously behind.

Luxon said this policy was originally pegged for 2026 but the Government had decided to bring it forward.

Speaking to reporters after, Luxon said student performance was a “crisis” and, responding to the new data last week, he called in education secretary Iona Holsted and her team.

The results showed it would be harder to achieved the Government’s target of 80% of children at or above the expected curriculum level by 2030, but he said he would not change the target.

“We don't have time to muck around here. We know what's needed and what interventions are needed,” he said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins, in response, said the year eight students described by Luxon had started school under the prior National Government’s system of national standards.

“That was a failure and we are still playing catch up,” he said.

“I’m pleased to see Christopher Luxon has committed to bringing forward Labour’s curriculum changes and is paying for teacher training and development. He should take the handbrake off school property builds and get rid of his Government’s terrible charter schools bill too.”

Luxon, in his speech, sought to connect anticipated cuts in interest rates and mortgage repayments, and decreasing to inflation, to his Government’s policies.

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Across speeches about education, justice, and infrastructure policy on Sunday morning, National MPs sought to impress members with a message: where Labour failed we will succeed.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said Labour’s handling of the school system was “bordering on criminal”.

National was putting its values of “ambition and achievement back at the heart of education”, including with targets to increase literacy, she said.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith began his speech about justice policy with a Powerpoint slide of photos of six-years worth of Labour justice and police ministers: Andrew Little, Kris Faafoi, Poto Williams, Stuart Nash, Kiri Allan and Ginny Andersen.

“Remember that guy?” Goldsmith said, when Little’s image appeared.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell played a video showing the glitzy motorbikes of Comanchero gang members being crushed, “which I think we all enjoy,” he said with a grin.

Adding to the entertainment was Rangitata MP James Meager who, when opening the justice panel, beamed a slide promoting his social media pages.

“Oh, something’s gone terribly wrong, this is very embarrassing. It appears my holding slide has been included … please, no photos,” he joked.

At the beginning of Sunday’s meeting, the party confirmed board member Sylvia Wood had been reappointed party president, after a board election on Saturday. Wood was first elected as the party’s non-Parliamentary leader in 2022.

Also elected to the party’s board this weekend were Jannita Pilisi, Stefan Sunde and David Ryan.