The government announces $2 million in funding to trial catch-up maths lessons

Secretary of Education Erica Stanford
Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone

The government has released further details of its plan to improve children’s performance in maths.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said it would spend $2 million next year on a trial of catch-up math lessons for children in grades 7 to 8.

“The trial will use small group tutoring and supervised online teaching for 30 minutes, up to four times a week for each child,” she said.

Stanford said the initiative would be expanded if it was successful.

She also announced that the government would spend $30 million on resources and workbooks for every primary and secondary school.

The details followed the government’s announcement in August that the rollout would be brought forward of a new mathematics curriculum by one year until early 2025.

Initial testing indicated the new curriculum would be more challenging than the current document, with approximately 22 percent of year 8 students expected to achieve the expected level of achievement, compared to 42 percent under the current curriculum.