Students will be assessed twice a year on the new maths curriculum. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
An education academic is questioning the timing of the government's plan to overhaul the maths curriculum with changes for teachers coming thick and fast.
The government is set to roll out new workbooks, teacher guides and other resources aligned to the new curriculum in a bid to boost flagging achievement levels.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon confirmed the plan during his keynote speech at the National party's annual conference in Auckland on Sunday.
The government was ringfencing $20 million for professional development on structured maths for primary and intermediate teachers.
Going forward, any candidates for teacher training programmes would need to pass NCEA Level 2 maths.
Luxon said from next year, students will be assessed two times a year on the new maths curriculum.
The announcement referenced new data from the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study (CIPS) that showed 22 percent of year 8 students in New Zealand were at the expected curriculum benchmark for mathematics.
Twelve percent of Māori students are where they should be and 63 percent of year 8 students overall were more than a year behind.
"These figures are appalling, but I suspect not a surprise for many parents who I know are frustrated and despondent about the progress of their children," Luxon said.
"Whether its the curriculum, teacher training or priorities within the education system - for years, we have not been setting kids up for success. And if we aren't setting our kids up for success, we aren't setting New Zealand up for success."
The proposed changes also come on the heels of an announcement in May by the government that all state schools in New Zealand would teach reading using a structured literacy approach.
'It is a lot of our teachers to deal with'
Massey University mathematics education lecturer Professor Jodie Hunter said she was concerned about the timing.
"There is a lot of change being thrown at teachers, all at a very rapid pace," she said.
"It is a lot of our teachers to deal with."
The timeframes for implementing the changes felt very hurried, Hunter said.
"You're talking about a curriculum that hasn't been consulted on by the sector.
"Whatever is being changed in terms of the curriculum ... nobody has seen this apart from people working at the ministry, or those who have changed it.
"It's a very short time period to be putting out a new curriculum for consultation, then taking on board feedback about that and having teachers actually have to teach it from January-February next year."
Hunter found the CIPS data around year 8 achievement "curious" due to the fact it was markedly different to previous statistical snapshots.
"I do find it very hard to believe that only one in five children at year 8 are working at the appropriate curriculum level or above the curriculum level ... that seems very very low.
"I think it would be more plausible that it would be around the 40 ot 50 percent mark ... which still isn't great."
She said moves to enhance professional development was a positive step.
'Lack of specificity'
Auckland Primary Principal's Association (APPA) president Kyle Brewerton said the changes would go "some of the way" in helping lift results.
However the plan did not address some of the root causes of under-achievement that had been declining for a number of years, he said.
"We still haven't touched on those particular groups that were over-represented in the under achievement category.
"How are we supporting things like poverty and families that are persistently absent."
Curriculum gaps off the back of the 2007 National Standards rollout meant lesser experienced teachers, and teachers who "lacked confidence" around maths did not deliver to the standard required, Brewerton said.
"There was a lack of specificity that didn't really help," he said.
"It hasn't been addressed but we've raised it for a long time.
"Even with the refresh, the level of the specificity that we were looking for was not there."
The APPA president said there were further concerns about the education system's resourcing for year 4 to 8 students in which class sizes were at their largest.
"All this data that we keep hearing is that by the end of year 8, our students are under-performing," he said.
"We put the least amount of resource in to those [year groups] where actually there's an issue."