Australian firm's involvement in school curriculum rewrite comes under scrutiny

Education Minister Erica Stanford said she could not remember if she had coffee with the head of Learning First before or after the company was given the contract. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro

The involvement of an Australian company in the rewrite of the school curriculum came under scrutiny at the Education and Workforce Select Committee.

Education Ministry officials told MPs the firm - Learning First - helped find content for the new maths curriculum, but did not write it.

They also told the Education and Workforce Select Committee New Zealand companies were not offered the job because the ministry was already working with Learning First.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Erica Stanford said she could not remember if she had coffee with the head of Learning First before or after the company was given the contract.

The responses were made following questions from Labour education spokesperson Ginny Andersen during the select committee's session for scrutinising the government's recent Budget.

Andersen asked why a contract for benchmarking the maths curriculum against curriculums in other countries was given to Learning First and not to a New Zealand company.

Stanford said she was not involved with contracting decisions but there were very few people who could compare curriculums internationally and provide an accurate benchmark of where New Zealand should sit.

Andersen said the New Zealand Council for Educational Research could have done the work and would have loved to bid it but did not get the opportunity.

She said the benchmarking contract was not put out for open tender.

Education Ministry deputy secretary Pauline Cleaver said the ministry had been working with Learning First already and procurement was based on the availability of a provider who could do the job in the required timeframe.

"We wanted to make sure that the changes that were being recommended to be made to the maths curriculum through that first year of use were going to continue to be internationally comparable," she said.

Andersen asked if Learning First wrote any part of the curriculum.

Cleaver said the company helped find content from other places with knowledge-rich curriculums but the writing was done by the ministry.

Stanford told MPs the government would intervene faster in poorly-performing schools and stop students' family means from becoming their destiny.

Andersen said schools in South Auckland were worried changes to Education Review Office reports would result in their schools being "ranked" badly compared to other schools.

Stanford said there would be no ranking