Te Akatea Demands Halt To "Regressive" Curriculum Rewrite That Undermines Te Tiriti O Waitangi

Te Akatea Condemns New Curriculum as "Recolonising Education," Perpetuating Racism and Accelerating Inequity

"Take care of our children. Take care of what they hear, take care of what they see, take care of what they feel. For how the children grow, so will the shape of Aotearoa". Dame Whina Cooper 1975

Fifty years ago, the late Dame Whina Cooper warned us to take care of our children, because how they grow will shape Aotearoa. These words resonate with Te Akatea, the national Māori Principals' and Leaders Association, which has expressed serious concerns about the refreshed, refreshed, refreshed curriculum iterations that have characterised Minister Stanford's micromanagement of the education system since early 2024.

1. The national curriculum is the roadmap for teaching, which significantly impacts how our children learn and grow. Te Akatea has announced that they have no confidence in the curriculum that is out for consultation and is demanding that the Government immediately halt the curriculum rollout. Bruce Jepsen (Kaiwhakahaere Matua), CEO of Te Akatea, asserts the draft curriculum is not a step towards educational balance but a "regressive recolonisation" that actively erodes Te Tiriti o Waitangi and critical national histories.

Jepsen (Kaiwhakahaere Matua) states that among other faults, "The new curriculum does not authentically represent Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The founding document of Aotearoa has been left out, and with it, hapū and iwi Māori are left out while Shakespare, and the histories of Europe are in. This approach reflects the Minister's determination to accept advice from educators in other colonised countries and create a curriculum that explicitly centres Eurocentric ways of knowing and being. Te Akatea represents hundreds of Māori educators and are allied with many other education Peak Body organisations who want to protect and advance Te Tiriti o Waitangi in education. We expect that this antiquated curriculum, will reinforce Eurocentric hierarchies of knowledge which will inevitably perpetuate racism and accelerate inequity in our schools."

Core Concerns: Dishonesty, Regressiveness, and Abuse of Power

Te Akatea has identified three critical failures in the current curriculum draft:

1. Sidelining Te Tiriti and Critical Truths: Our members view the removal of the "big ideas" that engaged with colonisation and power dynamics as an abandonment of ethical education.

"It is extremely serious. This curriculum is dishonest and regressive because it is not an honest reflection of our past, which created our current reality of unequal power dynamics," states Jepsen. "If implemented - it will ultimately be harmful."

Eurocentric Distraction: The new focus on topics like Ancient Rome and Greece is rejected as a genuine attempt at global learning.

It is worse than a distraction; it’s a political move that ignores five decades of collaborative education progress and development by tangata whenua and tangata tiriti experts that have advanced education in Aotearoa ."

False Claim of "Restoring Balance": The claim that the curriculum is restoring balance a falsehood. This is what the late Moana Jackson would call a 'myth-take,' a 'deliberately concocted falsehood.' .

"The New Zealand curriculum has never been balanced; it has always centred Eurocentric history, language, and people. The original Te Mātaiaho developed between 2021 and 2023 was the first true attempt to establish balance in the curriculum, and it is the only ethical, honest, and honourable curriculum we should be working from."

Commitment of Educators: Holding the Line on Truth

While Te Akatea does not have confidence in the new curriculum, the association does have faith that thousands of ethical leaders and teachers, Māori and non-Māori will resist the pressure to ignore the truth, despite the new curriculum's direction.

"Our teachers and leaders are being asked to ignore the truth, and that is unethical, dishonest, and ultimately inhumane," Bruce Jepsen asserts. "We believe ethical, Treaty-honouring educators will continue to ensure our young people learn true, accurate narratives about Aotearoa. We know that teachers will seize the teachable moments this regressive curriculum represents to help our learners understand what happens when people abuse power and behave in ways that are dishonest and oppressive."

The Association warns that if New Zealand continues to "soften the story of colonisation, we will exacerbate colonial oppression, perpetuate racism, and accelerate inequity."

Call to Action:

Te Akatea calls on the Minister of Education to reflect on the wise words that Dame Whina Cooper shared in 1975. If you want to take care of what our children hear, see, feel and how they grow - listen to tangata whenua and tangata tiriti. Genuinely listen to the cross subject, cross curricula and cross sector experiences and the evidence that we have gathered over decades. This evidence clearly shows that we know what our children need to learn and how they best learn so that they can grow and shape Aotearoa.

• Implement an Immediate Pause on the current rollout.
• Reinstate the Original Te Mātaiaho (2021-2023 draft), which was co-designed by tangata whenua and tangata tiriti experts and is founded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

About Te Akatea

Te Akatea is the national body for Māori Principals and educational leaders throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, advocating for the educational success of all Māori students in both English and Māori medium settings.

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