NZ Teachers Shocked Physics, Chemistry, Biology Missing From New Science Curriculum

This picture taken on Nov. 17, 2020, shows newly-produced laboratory glass beakers and tubes. Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images

New Zealand science teachers have raised alarm over an early draft science curriculum, which lacks any mention of physics, chemistry, and biology.

The draft, which will be officially released for public consultation in August, was distributed to a few teachers ahead of its publication.

Michael Johnston, senior fellow of the think tank New Zealand Initiative, who was leaked a copy of this initial draft science curriculum by a concerned teacher, said the document was a blueprint for “accelerating the decline of science in New Zealand.”

The Epoch Times has not seen the document.

Mr. Johnston warned that if this draft went through, high school graduates wanting to pursue studies in physical sciences or engineering would need to be taught from scratch by their university.

“Central concepts in physics are absent. There is no mention of gravity, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, mass or motion. Chemistry is likewise missing in action. There is nothing about atomic structure, the periodic table of the elements, compounds or molecular bonding,” he said of the draft.

Rather than physics, chemistry, and biology, the document proposes teaching science through four contexts that appear to draw from fundamental principles of the United Nation’s Agenda 21: climate change, biodiversity, infectious diseases, and the water, food, and energy nexus.

But Mr. Johnston warns that while these four topics are more attractive for young people, they require a solid understanding of basic scientific concepts and theories before they are able to do a deeper dive.

“If they are not systematically taught the basic theoretical content upon which study of these matters depends, they will never understand them. Initial attraction will turn to frustration,” he said.

New Zealand’s physics and chemistry teachers are also expressing concern and criticising the draft for its lack of actual science content.

Murray Thompson, co-chair of Secondary Chemistry Educators NZ, said while the draft had interesting topics, students needed to learn the basics first.

“Where’s the physics and chemistry, and why can’t we find words like force and motion and elements and particles? Why aren’t those words in there?” he told RNZ.

Pupils at Williamwood High School attend a biology class in Glasgow, Scotland, on Feb. 5, 2010. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

A Curriculum for the Modern Day

Cathy Buntting from the University of Waikato, who co-wrote the draft curriculum in question, said it was about modernising New Zealand’s curriculum.

“What the draft curriculum has proposed is teaching science through important contexts for today,” she told Radio New Zealand.

Ms. Buntting argued that while the words physics, chemistry, and biology were removed from the draft, their concepts would be included.

“What is needed is understanding how science works and that we use new evidence to develop and further enhance our understanding of models,” she said. “In fact, you can do this with a range of [topics]; for example, you don’t have to do atomic theory to enable students to develop an understanding of how models are developed.”

Ms. Buntting said the sentiment around the leaked early draft had been turned into a conspiracy by “alarmist teachers.”

She added that New Zealand’s current science curriculum lacked fine-grade detail and that the draft was “very high-level.”

Science Rolling Downhill

New Zealand is two years into its six-year endeavour to “refresh” the entire school curriculum. The rewritten curriculums for History, English, and Maths are already available to teachers for use.

Noting that the leaked science draft is still undergoing revisions, Mr. Johnston said he asked the Ministry of Education whether there was a newer version available, to which the Ministry said there was not.

“We can only hope that, when the new science curriculum is finally published, it is much improved. There is more chance of that if parents and teachers let the Ministry know that they would like the physical sciences still to be taught in our schools,” he said.

“But it is disturbing that the Ministry has produced a ‘science curriculum’ so bereft of essential aspects of science, even in draft.”

The New Zealand National Party’s education spokesperson, Erica Stanford, said the draft was doubling down on what was already failing education standards in science.

“Right now, only 20 percent of Year 8 students are meeting the expected standards in science,” she said, calling for the draft to be scrapped immediately.

ACT party’s education spokesperson, Chris Baillie, went further and called for the entire new curriculum to go “straight to the bin.”

“It’s not just the science curriculum—the entire refreshed state curriculum has become an ideological exercise in identity politics,” he said.

“Education shouldn’t be this hard. Humans have been doing it for millennia. Let’s get back to the essentials.”

New Zealand’s PISA scores in science have been sliding down, with the 2018 score 22 points lower than its 2006 score. Around 25 to 30 points equate to an estimated one year of schooling, according to the OCED.