The government has announced a number of new secondary school subjects and a new emphaisis on artificial intelligence it says will help prepare young people for the jobs of the future.

But one high school principal says the changes means “we could be looking at privatisation”.

Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos told Checkpoint the changes were a bit of a “mixed bag”.

“I like the breath of the list of subjects, I’ve still got a whole lot of questions around the details of what the subjects entail.

“I’ve got heaps of questions around what the actual curriculum of each of these subjects will actually look like,” she said.

Amos said she was worried that the subject list had only just been released.

She said she did not have any information on course content of those subjects.

Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos.
Photo: Supplied

There were some “beautiful” subjects, she said, but added she was also concerned the subjects on the list were “narrowed” and “standardised”.

“I’m worried that we are moving towards a prescribed syllabus.

“It bothers me that I think one of the real strengths of our curriculum is aspects of flexibility, and that it can be localised and personalised.

“I recognise that people are concerned about excess flexibility, but i’m a huge believer in the power of NCEA… and think we should be looking at dealing with the problems and issues in NCEA, and solving that and refining it rather than throwing the baby out of the bath water and doing something completely different.”

She said finding teachers for many of the subjects would be a problem.

“We could be looking at privatisation by stealth…

“I would hate to think we are actually disempowering our schools to be teaching our learners,” Amos said.

“My worry is that there have been plenty of signals that actually the whole teaching of these programmes may be farmed out to external providers and that’s really problematic.”

Labour’s education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime told RNZ the changes had come “really late in the piece” and were a surprise to many in the sector she had spoken to.

“They have been waiting for this list, asking for the list, they haven’t been involved in the development of this list and it has just been dropped and announced and now everybody is trying to figure out exactly what that means for them.”

Consultation on replacing NCEA with a new qualification began last month and ends on 15 September.

Labour’s education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime
Photo: RNZ

Prime said that meant the sector only had a few days left to give feedback.

“This is the entire scrapping of the qualification framework that we have known for the last few decades and [it’s] being replaced with something entirely new.”

“It was not co-designed with the sector and six short weeks for the sector to provide their feedback is just too short,” she said.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the announcement of new subjects and the end of the NCEA consultation were not “particularly related”.

“We’re just talking about a very broad high level direction of travel with NCEA… we can make those decisions without knowing the subject lists – they are out now – but there will be many more chances for a lot more decisions along the way around NCEA.

“The broad framework and the subjects are not related. You have to have a curriculum before you have what is being assessed, that is still the case. We will have a curriculum, then we will start to talk about what we assess, and how we assess it,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Stanford said those working on the currriculum changes were investigating having a new Year 13 subject on Generative AI “for later development”.

“With the rapid development of AI, students will also be able to learn about and use generative AI in a range of subjects. This may include learning about how digital systems work, machine learning, cybersecurity, and digital ethics.”

Stanford said the new subjects, being developed for the Years 11 to 13 curriculum, reflect the growing importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, often referred to as STEM.

She said the government was introducing new industry-led subjects to give students more choice.

These would include, primary industry, health and wellbeing services, outdoor education, automotive engineering, building and construction, infrastructure engineering, mechanical engineering, tourism and hospitality.

“Students will be able to specialise in areas such as earth and space science, statistics and data science, and electronics and mechatronics. There will also be a range of new specialist maths subjects including further maths.

“When our young people leave school, we want doors to open for them whether they’re going to tertiary study, learning a trade, or heading straight into work. These refreshed subjects will provide students with choice, purposeful pathways and opportunities for specialisation that set them up for success,” Stanford said in a statement.

It was vital students had access to “innovative and dynamic subjects” that would help the country’s future, she said.

Other new subjects include: civics, politics and philosophy, Pacific studies, Te Mātai i te Ao Māori and music technology.

Te Marautanga o Aotearoa will be resourced with a first ever detailed curriculum in te reo Māori as well as new subjects including new Tātai Arorangi (Māori traditional systems of Earth and Sky), Te Ao Whakairo (Māori carving) and Te Ao Māori subjects.

Phase-in over three years

The new subjects would be phased in starting with Year 11 students in 2028, then Year 12 students in 2029 and finally Year 13 students in 2030.

That gave the government just a few years to tackle a staffing shortage that principals have described as a crisis.

Stanford was adamant it could be done.

“Of course it is [possible], and I wouldn’t describe it as a crisis at all.” she said.

“We’ve got more students in training [to become teachers] than we’ve had in a very long time. A 28 percent increase in students studying secondary school teacher training.”

Chris Abercrombie
Photo: Supplied

Stanford explained that not all of the subjects would be covered at every school.

“As it exists now, not all schools do every subject,” she said. “They pick the subjects they’re able to offer, and that won’t change.”

But she noted that existing teachers might need to run additional classes.

“Many of these subjects will be taught by teachers already in the system,” she said.

“For example, there’s a new ‘journalism, media and communications’ subject. The teachers who already exist who teach media studies will likely teach that subject.”

Stanford hoped that the increased workload would be balanced by a flow of new teachers.

“It’s a bit of both. They may be doing additional subjects, or we may be having new teachers into the sector. It’s that combination of both, but we’ve got a long runway to get there.”

Post Primary Teachers Association president Chris Abercrombie said the government’s decision to release the list of secondary school subjects before the rest of the curriculum was putting the cart before the horse.

“It means that we have no idea, for example, of the prior learning that these Year 11 to 13 subjects will build on,” he said.

“We also would like to know what kind of support will be provided for the implementation of the new subjects in particular. We know from much experience that major changes succeed or fail depending on how well-resourced and supported the implementation of them is.”

Industry Skills Boards to develop the subjects

The Education Ministry would commission Industry Skills Boards to develop the subjects.

“These pathways will be industry led and tertiary aligned so they meet what is expected in the professional world, making staying at school relevant for every child, no matter what their career pathway. This will enable students to leave school with a secondary and a tertiary qualification. We’re having one integrated system where all subjects, whether ministry-led or industry-led, are equal,” Stanford said.

The peak bodies for teachers of both outdoor education and tourism courses previously told RNZ they feared the government’s overhaul of secondary school qualifications would downgrade them.

Education Outdoors NZ chief executive Fiona McDonald said the Industry Skills Board responsible for outdoor education had yet to be set up and would be poorly positioned to develop a school curriculum for outdoor education.

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