A new report released by the Education Review Office, the New Zealand government's external evaluation agency, detailed the drop in maths skills of students in primary school compared to students in other high-geared jurisdictions.

The reports focused on the problem that because of inadequate teaching preparation and nationwide standards, New Zealand's National Curriculum is not being taught completely by the teachers. They also found that teachers lack capacity and have begun to teach while they still need to substantially develop their own mathematic practices.

After coming to power, Education Minister Chris Hipkins terminated the framework of the national standards for primary schools. Chris argues that the framework has been nothing but a major distraction for all students and teachers and has not helped in achievement either. The New Zealand government has taken a step forward and has already begun managing problems about a decline in math skills. In 2019, the government demanded all teachers in New Zealand pass a test related to numeracy and literacy in order to earn their certification.

Paul Goldsmith, who received the paper with an Official Information Act request, stated that National would not be able to bring back National standards but would look for something similar. He also said that many people in the education sector were unwilling to admit that there was an issue or something wrong with the overall student achievement.

In 2022, this year, Jan Tinetti, the Associate Education Minister, took a step forward and is working with some stakeholders to generate a technique for lifting the achievements in mathematics and also said how National standards have overly narrowed wisdom to concentrate only on what was assessed.

Source: ncee.org