The National Curriculum is composed of The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa which set the direction for student learning and provide guidance for schools as they design and review their curriculum.
Although both come from different perspectives, each start with a vision of young people developing the competencies they need for study, work, and lifelong learning, so they may go on to realise their potential.
The New Zealand Curriculum is being refreshed, and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa redesigned. The mathematics, English, te reo Māori and Pāngarau learning areas in each curriculum will need to be implemented in 2025. The remaining learning areas will need to be implemented in 2027. School boards have new legislative requirements that came into effect on 1 January 2023. The Ministry of Education has provided guidance to help you manage the transition period until the new curricula are in place.
From the start of Term 1, 2024 school boards must ensure their school's teaching and learning programmes meet requirements for structuring teaching time for reading, writing and maths in Years 0 - 8. Specialist schools with students in Years 0 - 8 must ensure this from the start of 2025. Kura with a specified kura board must ensure this from Term 3, 2024.
The Foundation Curriculum Policy Statement and addition to the National Curriculum Statements can be downloaded below.
Also, see Ministry of Education – What boards do
From 2023, Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories and Te Takanga o Te Wā will be taught in all schools and kura.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories final content and resources can be found at Aotearoa New Zealand's histories.
Please note the revised Technology learning area and the NZC achievement objectives by level are provided separately.
To order print copies of NZC, visit Down the back of the chair (Ministry of Education online catalogue). Use reference number MOE32615 to order.
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (TMoA) Whakapākehātanga
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa Whakapākehātanga – link to an external site where you can download a PDF of the English translation.
The document identifies how the vision to grow competent and confident learners who are effective communicators in the Māori world links to the learning environment for children in Māori-medium schools.
Tēnā koutou katoa
It is my pleasure to introduce this revision of the New Zealand Curriculum. Like its predecessors, it is the work of many people who are committed to ensuring that our young people have the very best of educational opportunities.
The previous curriculum, implemented from 1992 onwards, was our first outcomes-focused curriculum: a curriculum that sets out what we want students to know and to be able to do. Since it was launched, there has been no slowing of the pace of social change. Our population has become increasingly diverse, technologies are more sophisticated, and the demands of the workplace are more complex. Our education system must respond to these and the other challenges of our times. For this reason, a review of the curriculum was undertaken in the years 2000–02.
Following this review, Cabinet agreed that the national curriculum should be revised. A widely representative reference group oversaw a development process that included trials in schools, collaborative working parties, online discussions, and an inquiry into relevant national and international research. This process led to the publication of The New Zealand Curriculum: Draft for Consultation 2006. The Ministry of Education received more than 10 000 submissions in response. These were collated and analysed and were taken into consideration when the document that you now have in your hands was being written.
The New Zealand Curriculum is a clear statement of what we deem important in education. It takes as its starting point a vision of our young people as lifelong learners who are confident and creative, connected, and actively involved. It includes a clear set of principles on which to base curriculum decision making. It sets out values that are to be encouraged, modelled, and explored. It defines five key competencies that are critical to sustained learning and effective participation in society and that underline the emphasis on lifelong learning.
The New Zealand Curriculum states succinctly what each learning area is about and how its learning is structured. The sets of achievement objectives have been carefully revised by teams of academics and teachers to ensure that they are current, relevant, and well-defined outcomes for students. A new learning area, learning languages, has been added to encourage students to participate more actively in New Zealand’s diverse, multicultural society and in the global community.
My thanks go to all who have contributed to the development of The New Zealand Curriculum: members of the reference group, teachers, principals, school boards, parents, employer representatives, curriculum associations, education sector bodies, academics, and the wider community. You can be proud of the part you have played in creating this sound framework for teaching and learning; a framework designed to ensure that all young New Zealanders are equipped with the knowledge, competencies, and values they will need to be successful citizens in the twenty-first century.
The challenge now is to build on this framework, offering our young people the most effective and engaging teaching possible and supporting them to achieve to the highest of standards.
Karen Sewell
Secretary for Education
The New Zealand Curriculum is a statement of official policy relating to teaching and learning in English-medium New Zealand schools. Its principal function is to set the direction for student learning and to provide guidance for schools as they design and review their curriculum.
A parallel document, Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, will serve the same function for Māori-medium schools.
Although they come from different perspectives, both start with visions of young people who will develop the competencies they need for study, work, and lifelong learning and go on to realise their potential. Together, the two documents will help schools give effect to the partnership that is at the core of our nation’s founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi.
The New Zealand Curriculum applies to all English-medium state schools (including integrated schools) and to all students in those schools, irrespective of their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, belief, ability or disability, social or cultural background, or geographical location. The term “students” is used throughout in this inclusive sense unless the context clearly relates to a particular group.
Schools that also offer Māori-medium programmes may use Te Marautanga o Aotearoa as the basis for such programmes.
This diagram provides links to the various sections of The New Zealand Curriculum.
