Labour wants independent education body to oversee curriculum, assessment

Labour wants to create a new independent education body to oversee curriculum and assessment to ensure there isn’t a sudden lurch when governments change.

The party also supports tweaking the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), rather than progressing the Government’s agenda of replacing the qualification.

Labour’s education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen wants the new entity to act similarly to the Infrastructure Commission, taking the politics out of educational reform.

“Parents want confidence that their child will leave school able to read, write, communicate, think critically and succeed in modern New Zealand,” she said.

“That requires a coherent curriculum, high expectations and stable settings that schools have the time and support to deliver well. Teachers also need the certainty to focus on teaching, rather than constantly scrambling to implement rushed or politically driven changes.

“Whether governments are left or right, curriculum and assessment decisions should be guided by evidence, educational expertise and what will improve learning.”

The Independent Council for Curriculum and Assessment (ICCA) would be established to oversee curriculum and assessment.

It would start as an interim expert group, created within three months of Labour coming to office to provide immediate feedback, and then legislated for once a final design is decided.

The Government would still “set the broad goals and expectations” of the education system, but “detailed curriculum and assessment design should be led by expert education and assessment specialists”.

Labour education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen wants a new independent body to oversee curriculum and assessment. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Andersen said she didn’t want to see ministers’ preferences dictating how the curriculum is written.

The ICCA “will create stability for students and for teachers in education, and that’s much needed now”, she told the Herald.

She said having the ICCA involved would ensure any curriculum changes are at “arm’s length from the Beehive”; however, ministers would still be involved in confirming the appointment of experts to the council.

The interim expert group would include members from across early childhood education, primary, secondary and Māori medium.

Andersen said she wanted to see bipartisan support for the idea.

“We think parents and teachers and students would all benefit if the curriculum lasted through governments over time and was built on year by year, not scrapped every time the government changed.”

The body would cost about $500,000 a year and be established through existing education funding.

When Education Minister Erica Stanford took office, she created a ministerial advisory group of educators to review primary school English and maths curriculum.

A refresh of the national curriculum is underway, with the new English and maths curriculum already required in schools and more subjects being rolled out in 2027.

Labour says those that haven’t been rolled out would be paused for a year for the expert group to assess what should proceed, while the English and maths work would continue.

It would also keep the NCEA system in place unchanged until 2029 to allow the ICCA to provide advice and then phase in any changes.

Under the Government’s plan to replace NCEA, a foundational qualification would be introduced for Year 11 students from 2028, the New Zealand Certificate of Education (NZCE) for Year 12 students would start in 2029, and the advanced certificate for Year 13 students would begin in 2030.

Andersen told the Herald that feedback to the Government’s replacement programme had highlighted support for strengthening, rather than scrapping, the current system and her party was supportive of that.

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.