Education Ministry documents obtained by RNZ show the Treaty of Waitangi was removed and then put back as a guiding 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 new curriculum with no mention of the Treaty. That was a change from the existing curriculum framework, Te Mātaiaho, which had included the Treaty as a key principle. RNZ

Six days later, on 18 April 2024, the ministry prepared a second report for the minister that put the Treaty back in. Stanford signed that document on 19 April. It said 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 — the one with no mention of the Treaty. That version said the curriculum was designed to "deliver excellent and equitable outcomes for all New Zealand children" but said nothing about 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 had the same title, the same ID number, and mistakenly the same date of 12 April 2024. The document that left out the Treaty was obtained through an Official Information Act request — a formal process where anyone can ask a government agency for official documents — by Dr Claire Coleman, a former ministry curriculum writer. The documents that included the Treaty were released by the ministry on its own initiative. RNZ

The ministry initially told RNZ the changes related to the government's coalition agreement but later took that back, calling it a mistake. RNZ

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

The ministry's own website hosts a document titled "Giving Better Effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi," published in April 2024, which refers to the Treaty and the provision of teaching 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 partly blacked-out document on the legal framework for charter schools (kura hourua) that discussed whether the law should include a provision on 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

These documents sit against a longer history. The New Zealand School Curriculum has, since its 2007 launch, said all students should have the chance to learn 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 came out amid an ongoing debate about the Treaty's place in the curriculum. In September 2025, teachers at an urgently called 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, saying "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 how closely the minister was tracking the changes and how the ministry kept track of different versions. 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 explanation that the changes came from the coalition agreement, later withdrawn as a mistake, leaves it unclear why the 12 April version left the Treaty out. Coleman's view that her work aligned more with the 30 April document than the June Cabinet paper adds further confusion about which principles actually shaped the rewrite.

The broader context here is a curriculum overhaul that has been argued over at every stage, with teachers, ministry officials, and the minister seeming to work 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 released by the ministry on its own initiative, while the one that omitted it required a formal request to come to light.