The Waitangi Tribunal has delivered a major rebuke of the Government’s school curriculum reforms, finding the Crown breached multiple principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and failed to meaningfully involve Māori in decisions affecting the education of ākonga Māori.
The Tribunal’s newly released report examined the Government’s move towards a knowledge-rich national curriculum informed by the science of learning, covering both the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.
It found breaches of the principles of partnership, active protection, equity and good government, including a lack of meaningful engagement and consensus-building with Māori over the new curriculum.
Of particular concern, the Tribunal found the Crown moved ahead with its knowledge-rich approach without sufficient evidence that it would reduce existing Māori educational inequities.
The Tribunal also found the reforms reduced the emphasis placed on te reo Māori, tikanga and mātauranga Māori, while the volume of prescribed curriculum content and mandatory teaching time for reading, writing and mathematics could make it more difficult for teachers to meaningfully incorporate te ao Māori.
For Māori-medium and kaupapa Māori education, the Tribunal found the Crown failed to adequately consider the aspirations of whānau, hapū and iwi and sidelined the Te Tīrewa Marautanga framework when redesigning Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.
The Tribunal says the consequences go beyond what appears in the classroom. It found the reforms had damaged the Māori-Crown relationship, diminished the mana of iwi and hapū working with schools and risked sending Māori students and whānau the message that Māori knowledge carries less value.
It has recommended the Crown recommit to partnership with Māori and work alongside Māori to develop a genuinely indigenous Māori-medium and kaupapa Māori curriculum through Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.
The findings put a fundamental question at the centre of the education debate — if the curriculum is supposed to reflect Aotearoa, what role should Māori have in deciding what and how our tamariki learn?
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