Australian firm's involvement in school curriculum rewrite comes under scrutiny (opens original article in a new tab)

The involvement of an Australian company in rewriting New Zealand's school curriculum is being questioned, with officials stating it helped find content but did not write the curriculum. The contract was not open to New Zealand companies, and the ministry cited the need for international expertise.

• Australian company Learning First was involved in the New Zealand maths curriculum rewrite but did not write it
• Education Minister Erica Stanford could not recall if she had coffee with Learning First's head before or after the contract was awarded
• The contract for curriculum benchmarking was not open to New Zealand companies
• Education Ministry stated they worked with Learning First due to their international curriculum expertise
• New Zealand Council for Educational Research could have done the work but was not given the opportunity
• Government plans to intervene faster in underperforming schools without ranking them