There will not be any radical changes to the content and any additional content will be in line with what currently exists. –Ministry of Education Report on the submissions to the Draft Curriculum for Year 1-10 students, October 2021
“Loaded” draft for consultation
By Roger Childs
The History Draft for Year 1-10 students came out in February and a reasonable four months was allowed for submissions. But this was clearly yet another example of paying lip service to the process of public consultation, with no intention of making any real adjustments to the document.
In reality the draft was a highly flawed, uneven proposal riddled with factual errors and saturated with references to Maori history, heritage, tradition and knowledge. This doesn’t concern the Ministry.
The Ministry of Education is unashamedly undertaking a revision of all curricula with the clear intention to honour our past and obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. There is no intention of providing objectivity, honesty and balance in the interests of students who are 85% non-Maori, while the rest are part-Maori with a varying percentage of the blood of colonists and their descendants.
The Ministry has been “captured” by Maori academics and bureaucrats, and their fellow travellers, and have the full backing of the Labour Government. They are empowered to carry out a key element of the He Puapua programme to “maorify” New Zealand society on the road to joint Crown – Maori government by 2040.
The Proposed History Curriculum for children aged 5 to 15 is a classic example of social engineering and indoctrination designed to win over the kids to the causes of increasing separatism and growing Maori power in New Zealand. It is based on the long established principle of moulding future adult citizens by starting early. A 16th century Jesuit and a 20th American psychologist have summed it up:
- St. Francis Xavier Give me the child until he is seven and I’ll give you the man. (A quote also attributed to Greek philosopher, Aristotle.)
- B.F. Skinner Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.
A process designed to get the “right” outcome
There was a general sense of enthusiasm and support for the draft curriculum content from both the education sector and the public. Report on the submissions.
There were over 5000 responses:
- 4491 using an online survey (See more detail below.)
- 488 in depth submissions
- 168 learner surveys
- 90 workshops (mainly organised by iwi and hapu.)
The Ministry didn’t seem to want in-depth, analytical submissions based on evidence, but did promote the return of superficial responses based on an online public survey. Here are the questions in this survey.
- Does the draft curriculum content reflect us as a nation?
- What is most important to you?
- What are the challenges in implementing this curriculum change?
The report stated that the consultation showed general support for the history curriculum content. However, teachers were more positive about the content than parents/family and community members.
Because of this, the report side-stepped that lack of positivity and provided detailed analysis on the responses of five supportive groupings — students, teachers, Māori, Pasifika and Asian.
From all the submissions the final report identified five positive messages:
- There was general support for the content.
- Many saw a strong connection between the content and their identity, culture, and citizenship.
- People were supportive of bringing Māori histories to the forefront of the content alongside other histories.
- Getting together with hapū and iwi was seen as a positive step in the right direction, but resourcing and support will be needed
- It was acknowledged that schools will have to play a significant role in whether or not the implementation is successful.
But the report did concede that some responses emphasized that the history taught should be “objective”, “unbiased”, and “accurate”!
So are any significant changes likely?
No, they won’t be allowed. The report made this extraordinary statement:
There will not be any radical changes to the content and any additional content will be in line with what currently exists.
So the He Puapua train will roll on. The overwhelming emphasis in the draft curriculum on Maori history is apparently fine. After all as the report concludes: The draft curriculum content has been developed to reflect the significance of Māori histories in New Zealand and to honour te Tiriti o Waitangi and the partnership between the Crown and tangata whenua.
The final draft will have no surprises and will be published later in October, for use in schools in 2022. The Ministry will also release the final draft of Te Takanga o Te Wā (Māori history).
For examples of in-depth submissions see these previous posts: here and here
So many families will be planning their move to Ozy now for better health, education, job, housing and general well being.
Yes housing values will drop away quickly here but a house will still be worth another house of comparable value.
My kids have been their a year now and in the first moth both had good jobs much better paying jobs, bought a car and apartment and wouldn’t return to New Zealand for all the tea or whatever in china.
Our editors often talk about where in the World we would like to live if not in NZ. With us all being retired it wouldn’t be for economic reasons, but just to get away from the madness now being inflicted on this country — which we love — by the Jacinda government. But at present we can’t even get away for 6 months because of her MIQ spots which are almost impossible to get.