This is a cut an paste from a post in Mount Albert Grammar website by Patrick Drumm, Headmaster. Emphasis is mine. This is post modernism at work.. "The Government announcement this week regarding fast-tracking changes to our school Mathematics Curriculum follows on the heels of changes to the way Literacy is to be taught in schools from next year. These proposed changes follow the recent release of data showing many (most) Kiwi students struggling to meet expected standards in Year 8 English and Mathematics. This trend is further reflected in other national and international measurements as students progress through the secondary education system. Rather than pointing fingers at various parts of the teaching sector, it is the quality of our National Curriculum which must be placed under the microscope. First introduced in 1993, successive iterations have ‘gutted’ much of the knowledge and content that were part of subject syllabi in the past. Instead, there was a deliberate decision by curriculum writers to elevate skills, attitudes and competencies. ‘How’ to learn (and teach) became much more important than ‘what’ was to be learned. There were even attempts at deconstructing and reinventing subjects. Schools were encouraged to develop their own (local) curriculum leading to wide variation and interpretation of courses depending on where in the country (or city) you might attend school. Any student who moved between schools could not be guaranteed the same content in their courses. Physics in one school could look markedly different than physics in the school down the road. The flexible design of NCEA and other assessment tools has masked much of the negative impact of the New Zealand Curriculum on student achievement. It is really only the alarm at our declining standing against international measures that has precipitated the current rethink around curriculum. And despite the rhetoric around equity, it has been our most vulnerable learners who have suffered more than any from the current situation. A knowledge-rich curriculum accompanied by rigorous, valid assessment has been a lynchpin of a MAGS education. We have been prepared to take a lead in this with our own Year 11 MAGS Certificate of Educational Achievement. But no school in New Zealand should have to write and design its own curriculum and assessment system. Providing every New Zealand teacher and student with a structured and prescribed document to guide their practice must be the number one priority of the Ministry of Education. Valid, reliable, common assessments must align tightly to the document. Hopefully, recent announcements are a step in the right direction" It seems clear that this secondary school (my own high school) has been aware of the downward spiral for some time..

I received this today from ACC https://www.acc.co.nz/newsroom/stories/rongoa-maori-practitioner-hopes-traditional-healing-system-becomes-mainstream One of the practitioners (above) is promoted and the following claim is made: "“When you are out of alignment or out of balance – whether it’s mental, psychological, physical, or spiritual – it’s normally an indication, or a tohu (sign), that there is something deeper going on than the symptoms that are presenting .” The ACC is well aware that medical evidence has long debunked this sort of approach. If you do a simple PubMed search on Rongoa, there are 21 citations (out of many millions). Only one controlled trial (of Kanuka oil for ezcema), is shown. There is no issue with doing western styled research on plants and traditional medicines - it is something that has been going on in pharmaceutical research since the 19th centrury, but what is distrubing, is the apparent acceptance by ACC that somehow the spiritualism of Maori Rongoa traditional medical practice is acceptable whereas it is not acceptable if coming out western cultures. Much of this sort on thing is pure religious mumbo jumbo and there is simply no scientific evidence that anything these practitioners do is superior to western medical approaches, for Maori or anyone else. We are tax / levy payers that have to pay for this nonsense and should be taking ACC and the Health Department for the double standards being applied here. Christian or other exorcisms would not (& should not) be tolerated on the Health budget.

As a registered Specialist Physiotherapist (Musculoskeletal) I have just been sent the latest suggested changes to the New Zealand Physiotherapy Board's accreditation document. Needless to say the proposed changes are mostly about installing references to the TOW, 'partnership', Maori culture, values, science and demands. Of course, in my response to the proposed changes, I have told the Board that I thoroughly disapprove of the suggested changes, and regard them as offensive, racist, divisive etc. Soon you will have to be an expert in Maori healing practices & spirituality to be licensed as a physiotherapist, and compulsory brainwashing courses on cultural safety are not far away. I have practised for over 50 years and proudly consider myself to be colour blind and without any professional biases with regards to race, culture or ethnicity. I have never treated patients differently depending on race, ethnicity or culture, and don't intend to start. I simply don't know of any physiotherapist who does. The claims of systemic racism are nonsense. The differences between Maori & non-Maori health outcomes accesing of health services are invalidly based on factors mostly outside of the control of health care providers like: personal preferences of Maori/Pacifica when the are ill, socioeconomic factors and a higher % of Maori in rural environments etc. This is not system racism, but a blame/shame tactic of extremist elements in left leaning parties and especially journalists who frankly know little about medicine & health care practitioners.