There is something illuminating about the expression “grip this up.” It’s not the language of thoughtful consideration. It is the language of someone who has examined a system, determined that it is ineffective, and made the decision to act swiftly, firmly, and with sufficient political will to overcome opposition. As she guided the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill through Parliament, Education Minister Erica Stanford is credited with saying this, and it has come to represent how both supporters and detractors view the entire reform endeavor. Quick. structural. Not without controversy, either.
On May 14, the bill passed its second reading. The following week, Stanford presented the Committee of the Whole House with an amendment paper that included seven more recommendations. Some of those ideas had been in the works for some time. Others seem to have come more suddenly, especially those that deal with home education requirements and school hostel standards. As a result, hundreds of parents and homeschooling families have written to oppose the changes. It’s obvious that people are uneasy about both the speed and the content. It’s difficult to understand why families believe they weren’t sufficiently consulted when significant legislative changes to home education appear in the form of a last-minute amendment paper.
The Teaching Council, New Zealand’s professional association for educators, is at the center of the reforms, and the results of two different reviews paint a negative picture. According to the Debbie Francis review, the Council does not consistently view itself as a system regulator and its statutory purpose does not clearly center on child safety. Significant governance and internal oversight shortcomings were discovered by a different Public Service Commission investigation, which described “serious shortcomings” in the Council’s procedures, including conflicts of interest and irregularities in procurement. In direct response to those conclusions,
Stanford has proposed amendments that would elevate child safety in the Council’s statutory purpose, impose more stringent reporting requirements, establish term limits for the Chief Executive, and reorganize the board into a seven-to nine-member body that is appointed by the minister and has the power to remove members. The final point, the ministerial authority to remove board members, has drawn criticism from some quarters, raising concerns about the Teaching Council’s continued independence under the new arrangement.
The Green Party has been outspoken in its opposition. The party’s education spokesperson, Lawrence Xu-Nan, has claimed that the larger reform package, which includes doing away with New Zealand’s current secondary qualification framework, NCEA, puts thousands of students at risk of losing their credentials and disproportionately hurting Māori, Pasifika, disabled, and neurodivergent students. Until significant community consultation occurs, the Green Party has demanded that all curriculum and qualification changes be halted. Although it is unlikely to slow Stanford down, educators and community organizations are genuinely concerned that the rate of change has outpaced the body of evidence supporting it.
Observing all of this from a distance gives the impression that New Zealand is conducting a variation of an experiment that other nations have attempted with varying degrees of success: centralizing educational oversight in the name of accountability, acting swiftly to address identified failures, and acknowledging that some stakeholders will be dissatisfied with both the direction and the speed. Similar reforms to free schools and academies were implemented in the United Kingdom. Australia has experienced cycles of testing-centered accountability and the backlash that followed. It is still genuinely unclear whether Stanford’s strategy results in the improvements in teaching quality and child safety that she has promised, or whether it causes enough institutional disruption to counteract those gains. The bill is in motion. The debates are still ongoing. Additionally, people in New Zealand’s school halls and homeschooling networks are waiting to see what happens next.
