This manifesto draws on the body of research compiled at The New Zealand Initiative over the past decade to bring together a coherent plan to improve our education system, and to restore it to a place of international pre-eminence.
New Zealand’s once world-leading school education system is in a state of deep malaise. Objective international measures show an ongoing decline in key achievement areas, including literacy, numeracy and science. Too many students are leaving school ill-prepared for tertiary study, work and life.
This manifesto lays out the many problems besetting the system – from the Education and Training Act to curriculum and qualifications to teacher training and remuneration to educational monitoring, evaluation and research. Policy solutions for each of these problems are also presented.
