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An explainer on the maths "crisis"

Unfortunately that's behind a paywall, but there's ways and means of reading it, eg via RSS subscription to NZ Herald.

A couple of notes for the benefit of those that can't read it. Two lecturers in maths education have pointed out that Luxon's claim that there is a crisis is misleading as the achievement data is "based on a new draft curriculum, with a higher benchmark compared to previous years."

ie, the standard for achievement is higher, not the level of maths knowledge declining suddenly. In fact "We’ve been tracking student achievement in mathematics at Year 8 for more than 10 years, and in that time, there has been no evidence for improvement or decline."

More alarmingly for me, a ministerial advisory group was setup which has recommended a new curriculum even while acknowledging there is a lack of evidence for teaching maths the way it proscribes.

That advisory group is chaired by an NZ Initiative idealogue, Dr Michael Johnston and the article almost infers he is basically pushing his own manifesto on how education should be conducted into the curriculum - again, despite evidence it has application to maths education.

For anyone that doesn't know, the NZ Initiative was formed by merging the Business Roundtable and the NZ Institute. They are far right neoliberal idealogues and you'll see people cycle through the organisation before going into political reporting or lobbying, or in Nicola Willis case being placed into political party roles.

An explainer on the maths "crisis"https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/explainer-christopher-luxon-is-rushing-forward-a-new-curriculum-to-help-fix-the-maths-crisis-how-bad-is-it-and-what-will-fix-it/OGMMXLXGGRBJNLX4Z3TI6RDZOE/Open linkView original on lemmy.nz
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lemmy.nz

This stuff pisses me off so much.

Educational curricula should be independent of politics. It should be solely based on educational research and achievement statistics, not fucking ideology.

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I think I can see the end game. English and maths are just testing the waters. Eventually it'll be social studies and history.

Create a generation entirely (well, even more) ignorant of our 19th and 20th century history where Te Tīritī, the New Zealand Wars, the Land Court, etc are all forgotten.

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An explainer on the maths "crisis" | Spyke