Teachers will receive support to ensure they can teach the new history curriculum with confidence, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo: RNZ / Sam Rillstone
Ardern is offering the assurance after consultation opened this week on the New Zealand history curriculum to be taught in all schools and kura from 2022.
Students up to year 10 will be taught about the early battles and migrations that shaped their region.
The subject will also be available as an option from year 11.
Ardern wants the Ministry of Education to draw on local knowledge and history.
"Now alongside that I'll be very keen to hear the Ministry of Education's advice on how do we then support our teaching workforce to teach that with confidence," Ardern says.
"What we do want to do is bring in a local element so that we can draw on local knowledge, local history, and teachers are able to bring that knowledge into the classroom to help support their teaching, too."
The government is seeking feedback on what the curriculum will look like.
Officials have been devising the draft curriculum which has been published online since 2019 when the government announced Aotearoa history would be taught in all schools and kura by 2022.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins urged people to check out the content and provide feedback before it was finalised - he also said the shift in approach would be a "watershed moment" for New Zealanders.