Primary principals and teachers’ groups ask government to pause the fast-tracking of curriculum change in schools

Primary principals and teachers are asking the Minister of Education to pause the fast-track implementation of new structured math and English curricula by 2025, saying the rate of change means implementation will be ineffective and not lead to the successful outcomes for children that everyone wants.

NZEI Te Riu Roa and the NZ Principals’ Federation say schools and school leaders are struggling with a huge gap in the learning support resourcing they need for students with learning needs. Adding implementation of two new major curriculum areas simultaneously would burn out already stressed teachers and move their focus from meeting the immediate needs of the children in front of them.

Read the latest print edition of School News HERE

For example, the draft math curriculum, which sets in some cases more than a hundred new ‘learning objectives’ at each year level, represents a significant departure from the 2023 draft, which had undergone deep involvement with the teaching profession.

The Government should either delay the math curriculum until 2026, as it had originally signalled, or leave it to school leaders’ professional judgement about which one of either English or math was implemented in their school in 2025.

Public statements from a large number of principal associations and a survey of the sector show overwhelming support for the pause.

Underpinning this is the need for Government to listen to teachers and to commit to more effective engagement with the teaching profession and their representative bodies on curriculum development and its implementation, the groups say. They are also calling for a moratorium on further system change until there is agreement with the sector on more reasonable timelines and processes for consultation.

NZEI releases member survey – educators say changes not viable

Principals and teachers strongly agree that the Government’s fast-track mandating of two major curricula changes by the start of 2025 is requiring too much change too fast, an NZEI Te Riu Roa survey released today says.

Overwhelmingly, school leaders and teachers said the under-resourcing of a wide and complex range of learning needs of around 30% of their students was the key issue that needed the Government’s attention, and which made the pace of the curriculum changes unmanageable.

In a member survey conducted over the first two weeks of September, 77.5% of principals and 73.7% of teachers said change was happening too fast to be effective.

“It is unsustainable. As a principal in my fifth year in the role, I cannot see that I can sustain this level of work or stress for much longer unless something drastically changes. The worrying thing is, I feel like this already, before trying to hurriedly implement two new curriculum areas at the start of next year. It is simply not manageable.”

“It is important that we implement change with integrity. The current pace of change is a barrier to this happening. I am concerned that we will end up with rushed implementation that undermines both teaching and learning.” 

“It is NOT doable. I am teaching full-time and being a principal early morning and late at night. I cannot cope with all these changes as well as everything else.” 

67% of teachers and 63% of principals said the curriculum changes would not do anything to meet the real needs of kids in their school.

“If teaching was maths, writing and reading, and the other important learning areas, and students were all learning at approximately similar levels, no problem… It’s when society expects us to parent, provide psychological support, toilet train, manage anxiety, be trauma informed, and maintain our own work-life balance — there are not enough hours in the day.”

 “I have watched and waited for years to see greater specialist availability and [extra] needs support that can be accessed in a timely manner. Sadly, it gets worse per year, not better. So many neuro-diverse pupils and so little diagnosis and / or resourcing, it is exhausting our amazing teachers, they will all leave if this keeps up.” 

“Student outcomes are linked to lack of support, so the pace is one thing but neglecting the needs is the worst part — how are all children going to achieve without support?”

Schools reported a median of 30% of their students having additional learning needs. Just 1.1% of principals said these students were well-supported in their school, with 76.4% saying there was partial but inadequate support.

There was strong concern about the pace of change, even when educators supported the new curricula: 16.6% of teachers and 18.8% of principals thought the changes would impact positively, but only 6.2% of teachers and 5.3% of principals thought the pace of change was “about right”.

“The workload of a principal is absolutely enormous, as is the stress. I fully support the Government’s initiative but to do the implementation well, we need time and better support for our children with additional need.”

Principals and teachers were also concerned about the increased work demands of implementing two new curricula simultaneously. 52.3% of principals and 37.5% or teachers said they were already working 51-60 hours a week, a third of teachers were working 41-50 hours a week, and 23.6% of principals were working 61-70 a week.

36.3% of teachers and 52.3% or principals said they thought the new curricula would require significantly more hours’ work a week on top of these hours, and 21.1% thought it would require two to five hours’ more work a week.

Both teachers and principals said a lack of learning support for students with learning needs and new government initiatives were among their top stressors at work.

This is backed up by OECD research that shows the share of teachers that report “quite a lot” or “a lot” of stress related to changing requirements from the national authorities is above the OECD average.*