Education Ministry documents obtained by RNZ show the Treaty of Waitangi was removed and reinstated as an overarching principle of the school curriculum rewrite within a three-week period in April 2024. RNZ

A ministry report to Education Minister Erica Stanford dated 12 April 2024 set out design principles for the curriculum rewrite that did not include the Treaty of Waitangi. The omission was a departure from Te Mātaiaho, the framework for the existing curriculum at that time. RNZ

Six days later, on 18 April 2024, the ministry prepared a second report for the minister that included the Treaty as an overarching principle. Stanford signed that document on 19 April. The report stated the curriculum "acknowledges Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand." RNZ

On 30 April, Stanford signed the earlier 12 April document that had no mention of the Treaty. That version described the curriculum as designed to "deliver excellent and equitable outcomes for all New Zealand children" without mentioning Te Tiriti o Waitangi. RNZ

The Treaty was included again in curriculum principles approved by Cabinet in a paper dated 4 June 2024 titled "Establishing a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum." RNZ

The two ministry reports bore the same title, "Design for the New Zealand Curriculum change programme," the same ID number, and mistakenly the same date of 12 April 2024. The document omitting the Treaty was obtained via an Official Information Act request by Dr Claire Coleman, a former ministry curriculum writer. The documents that included the Treaty were proactively released by the ministry. RNZ

The ministry initially told RNZ the changes related to the government's coalition agreement but later rescinded that explanation, calling it mistaken. RNZ

Coleman told RNZ the work she was involved with at the ministry bore more relation to the principles in the document signed on 30 April than those in the Cabinet paper. RNZ

The ministry's own web-assets domain hosts a document titled "Giving Better Effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi," published in April 2024, which references the Treaty and provision of instruction in tikanga Māori and te reo Māori for full-time students whose parents request it. Ministry of Education

In October 2024, the ministry published a redacted document on the legislative framework for charter schools (kura hourua) that discussed whether the legislation should include a provision on the relevance and application of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ministry of Education

The Treaty of Waitangi is the first of five guiding principles in the ministry's Ka Hikitia – Accelerating Success 2013–2017 Māori education strategy, as published on education.govt.nz. Ministry of Education

The current documents sit against a longer policy backdrop. The New Zealand School Curriculum has, since its 2007 launch, stated that all students should have the opportunity to acquire knowledge of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori, and to learn about the Treaty of Waitangi. Beehive Aotearoa New Zealand history was made compulsory in all schools from 2022, a move RNZ described as "a sign of a mature society." RNZ The refreshed national curriculum includes teaching about the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi, early explorers, settlers, migration stories, and key civilisations. Beehive

The April 2024 documents surfaced amid ongoing contestation over the Treaty's place in the curriculum. In September 2025, educators at an urgently convened conference in Wellington said mention of the Treaty and te reo Māori were being dropped from new English and maths curriculums. RNZ Stanford rejected those claims the same day. RNZ

In May 2026, teachers criticised draft curriculums, stating that "Te Tiriti o Waitangi" was not evident anywhere in the documents. The drafts would replace a curriculum many had described as too vague. RNZ

The sequence of signed documents raises straightforward questions about ministerial oversight and the ministry's internal version control. Two reports with the same title, ID number, and date, one with the Treaty as a principle and one without, were both put before the minister for signature within a fortnight. The ministry's initial attribution of the changes to the coalition agreement, subsequently withdrawn as mistaken, leaves the policy rationale for the 12 April version unclear. Coleman's assessment that the work she was involved with aligned more with the 30 April document than the June Cabinet paper adds a further layer of confusion about which design principles actually shaped the rewrite.

The broader context here is a curriculum overhaul that has been contested at every stage, with teachers, ministry officials, and the minister appearing to operate from different understandings of what the final product will say about the Treaty. Stanford's September 2025 rejection of claims the government was reducing Treaty mentions sits alongside documentary evidence that the principle was cut, reinstated, cut again, and reinstated once more in a six-week window. For those working in education policy, the paper trail matters: the documents that included the Treaty were proactively released, while the one that omitted it required an OIA request to surface.