{"id":603110,"date":"2026-09-17T10:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603110\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T10:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:18:14","slug":"labour-says-it-will-set-up-body-to-oversee-nzs-school-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603110\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour says it will set up body to oversee NZ’s school curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour says it will establish an independent body to oversee New Zealand’s curriculum and assessment system, if elected.<\/p>\n

The policy, announced this afternoon, would introduce an “Independent Council for Curriculum and Assessment”, or ICCA. <\/p>\n

Labour education spokesperson Ginny Andersen said the council would “provide expert leadership of New Zealand\u2019s curriculum and assessment system”.<\/p>\n

If elected, Labour would establish an interim expert group within three months to provide immediate advice on curriculum and assessment.<\/p>\n

Labour would pause the rollout of curriculum changes made by the current Government for a year that hadn’t been implemented. <\/p>\n

Work on maths and English that was already underway would continue, with support provided to schools. <\/p>\n

The current NCEA system, which the Government was working to replace<\/a>, would remain in place and “unchanged” until 2029, so the ICCA’s advice could be considered and any future changes could be properly planned and phased in.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An empty classroom (file image). (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

Existing baseline education funding would be reprioritised under Labour’s policy to establish and operate the ICCA itself, costing $500,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Andersen said “curriculum and assessment decisions should be guided by evidence, educational expertise and what will improve learning”, regardless of which party held power. <\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments will continue to set the broad goals and expectations for our education system. That democratic accountability will remain. <\/p>\n

“But detailed curriculum and assessment design should be led by expert educators and assessment specialists, not rewritten according to the preferences of individual ministers.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the policy was not about creating more bureaucracy. <\/p>\n

“It is about building a coherent curriculum, avoiding rushed changes and improving educational outcomes for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will keep what is working, carefully assess changes that are underway and make future decisions based on evidence and expert advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood curriculum reform takes time. It requires professional expertise, proper implementation and the confidence of the parents, teachers and schools who rely on it.” <\/p>\n

On its website, the National Party said it planned to improve New Zealand’s education system by ensuring schools taught an hour of reading, writing, and maths per day; banning cell phones in classrooms, providing more resources, and replacing NCEA, with clear A+ to E grades and an exam in every subject. <\/p>\n

\"Education<\/p>\n

Education Minister Erica Stanford with Prime Minister Chris Luxon. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

In May, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced NCEA would be replaced<\/a> by the New Zealand Certificate of Education (NZCE) at Year 12 and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education (NZACE) at Year 13.<\/p>\n

Under the new system, students would study at least five subjects in Years 12 and 13 and must pass at least three subjects to earn each qualification, alongside a compulsory literacy and numeracy Foundational Award benchmarked at Year 11.<\/p>\n

Since being elected, the Government has been working to completely overhaul New Zealand’s curriculum<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Government released the final two learning areas for the new curriculum for years 0 to 10. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis curriculum provides a clear and nationally consistent pathway for learning, helping students develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to succeed at school and beyond,\u201d Stanford said.<\/p>\n

Schools were given until the start of 2029 to fully implement the new framework. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour says it will establish an independent body to oversee New Zealand’s curriculum and assessment system, if elected.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84,8028,111,43,139,69,135,270122],"class_list":["post-603110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-education","tag-labour-party","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-vote-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}