English curriculum draft out for consultation

The English draft curriculum for Years 7 to 13 has been released.  

Consultation is open until Friday, 13 June – an extension from the original April date – and the Ministry of Education says feedback is “strongly encouraged”. The draft curriculum will be finalised in Term Four this year, and will become compulsory from 2026.  

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The draft is accompanied by a list of suggested texts, which the Ministry of Education says will “align to and exemplify the range, form and complexity of texts outlined in the curriculum.” The Ministry states that the list is not a comprehensive one, and only includes examples. With feedback from teachers, the list will be extended, developed and released with the finalised learning area. 

The draft curriculum had suffered a series of delays since late last year and was finally released on Monday, 31 March, 2025. The curriculum had been plagued by issues including the New Zealand Association for Teachers of English (NZATE) deciding to step back from the writing process, citing content and transparency concerns.  

The release of the draft has attracted a fresh wave of discussion among educators. Some have criticised the draft as being a step backward, as it lacks reference to Te Mātaiaho and includes compulsory elements like Shakespearean texts. 

Among its critics is PPTA Te Wehengarua President Chris Abercrombie, who says the curriculum is “out of touch”.  

“Its focus on cursive writing at Year 8, for example, shows a complete lack of understanding of the challenges of secondary teaching and the extent to which teachers have to work to engage and motivate students and manage an ever-increasing range of abilities and behaviours,” says Abercrombie.  

“If there is no link between the curriculum and reality, then it will not be delivered or received well, resulting in more students being disengaged and more teachers leaving the profession.” 

NZATE President Pip Tinning said her concerns on seeing an earlier version of the draft remained largely true. The curriculum still covered a “huge amount of work”, and there was no mention of how it would all be assessed.  

“The lack of openness and transparency should be concerning everyone,” added Tinning.  

Where is Te Mātaiaho?  

The draft English curriculum lacks reference to Te Mātaiaho, the framework underpinning the curriculum refresh.  

NZATE president Pip Tinning says this concerns her as there needs to be alignment between the different learning areas.  

RNZ sources said Te Mātaiaho would be discarded, but Education Minister Erica Stanford said Te Mātaiaho was not included in the draft because it needed work.  

“Once we’ve done more of the curriculum areas we’ll look at the overarching framework. We are keeping Te Mātaiaho, we just haven’t quite got to that piece of work yet,” said Stanford.  

The Ministry of Education confirmed this statement, saying work is “ongoing” to see how “the larger framework [Te Mātaiaho] is refreshed alongside the revised focus of a knowledge-rich curriculum grounded in the science of learning. 

“The updated design for the New Zealand Curriculum is based on the science of learning and ensuring excellent and equitable outcomes for students. The learning areas will provide authentic examples, demonstrating indigenous knowledge through the thoughtful and deliberate inclusion of Māori culture, language, and cultural contexts with disciplinary relevance,” a spokesperson said. 

The Ministry said the draft was still organised around the “Understand, Know, Do” model.  

Other recent drafts do mention Te Mātaiaho but changed the curriculum’s guiding principle from Te Tiriti o Waitangi to “the science of learning”.  

Bruce Jepsen, Manukura of Te Akatea, the Māori Principals Association, said the broader changes in the curriculum amounted to “educational violence” as the Treaty was being demoted in importance across other areas like official guidelines.  

“What we’re experiencing from a board level, from a teaching level, from a leadership level is a total whitewash of Te Tiriti out of education,” said Jepsen.  

“If we’re being steered to teach the science of learning, structured literacy, structured maths, once again that ignores Māori ways of knowing, teaching and learning and, therefore, that’s going to have a significant impact on tamariki Māori and all other tamariki.”  

A workable draft?  

While its reception from educators has been followed by criticism, some educators are cautiously optimistic.  

Claire Amos, Principal of Albany Senior Secondary School and English educator wrote that the document “is not as contentious as I expected. 

“Whilst I think the loss of Te Mātaiaho is criminal, and whilst I feel like this is not, in its current state a Te Tiriti-led curriculum, it isn’t as ‘colinised’ as I was expecting either.” 

Amos says that though she is unsure of the need for a compulsory Shakespeare unit, and she has questions about the breadth of the curriculum, “I don’t think the overarching structure and direction is terrible at all… I like that there is a level of guidance and detail that will support teachers. 

“I feel like its a workable document,” said Amos.  

The full English curriculum draft for Years 7 to 13 can be found on the Tāhūrangi – New Zealand Curriculum website along with the accompanying feedback form.