Balanced News: National Party leader Christopher Luxon announces education policy

National’s leader Christopher Luxon has unveiled the details of their four-part plan to improve literacy and numeracy in the primary school curriculum. The plan involves children spending an hour on average per day on reading, writing and maths – similar to the ‘Back on track’ policy announced in 2021. It would shift the curriculum from two-to-three year ‘bands’ of requirements to year-specific. A centralised library of resources for teachers to create lessons from would be created, while the party would also introduce an exit exam for primary and intermediate teaching graduates covering expertise in reading, writing, maths and science instruction, and require current teachers to do professional development in “teaching the basics”. Teacher registration fees would also be scrapped.