Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
Some school principals say they have not been given enough time to completely change the way students are taught to read.
The government has made it mandatory for all state schools to use a structured literacy approach from term 1 next year - a big departure from the balanced literacy programmes many schools have used for years.
Kaurihohore Primary School principal Leslee Allen said for years she never questioned the way she taught her students to read, using the balanced literacy approach.
"I would have thought, hey the kids are reading, they're doing OK."
It was not until she looked further into the research that she realised "there is a better way", she said.
Since implementing structured literacy six years ago, she has become a great advocate for it.
Structured literacy involves teaching the building blocks of words using sounds.
In contrast, the balanced or whole language approaches were built on the belief that if you exposed students to reading and language they would learn naturally.
Allen was worried that with just over six months for teachers to learn the structured approach, it would not be taught effectively.
"If it's not taught well, they'll continue to suffer from what we call 'dys-teachia', which is not understanding how to do it well. And I guess there won't be any progress made that we are wanting to see for our tamariki."
At her school it took several years for teachers to become fully comfortable with structured literacy, she said.
"People need to be given that time, to slow down, to understand, to unpack, to have that professional curiosity so that they can really embed it well in their classrooms."
'The pace of change does worry our staff'
Some principals Checkpoint spoke to had already trained some of their teachers in structured literacy, while others would be starting from zero.
One of those was Bruce Cunningham, principal at Belmont primary school on Auckland's North Shore.
"Teachers are busy as they are, and it's going to be a whole new pedagogy they have to learn. And so they're going to have to work really really hard to do this. With new resources, new book to use - it'll work well for us, but the pace of change does worry our staff."
It was estimated that up to 8000 teachers across the country would need to be trained in structured literacy.
Cunningham hoped there would be enough professional development staff to get the job done.
"To provide funding for 8000 teachers, to find the providers for 8000 teachers, the resources, that's going to be a lot of work. Hopefully the providers are out there to train the teachers, that's a big number."
Cunningham would have preferred to continue with the balanced literacy approach, which he said had worked for his school.
Some parents Checkpoint spoke to outside the school gates agreed.
"They both love reading, in year 4 and year 1, so it's never a chore for us," said one parent.
"We've been really happy with how it's been going, she's showing such good progress," another said.
For others, though, structured literacy was clearly the way to go.
Karina, said her dyslexic daughter's reading had greatly improved after moving from the balanced to the structured approach.
"Prior to having the structured literacy tutoring, she would be coming out every few minutes - 'what's this word, what's that word?' and we would sort of do the sounding out thing with her. And since she's had the structured literacy tutoring, she's just gone on to reading the diary of Anne Frank."
In a statement, Minister of Education Erica Stanford highlighted the $67 million that has been allocated for the switch to structured literacy, including for professional development for teachers.
She said the move was announced before this year's Budget to give schools enough time to implement it.
The move had considerable support from the education sector, she said, calling it a critical part of the government's plan to get 80 percent of year 8 students to curriculum level in reading, writing and maths by 2030.