Ministry staff told to remove Aotearoa from curriculum papers, whistleblowers say
Multiple Education Ministry staff have told RNZ their managers instructed them to delete Aotearoa and other Māori words from official documents. RNZ
The staff spoke as whistleblowers. They said the instructions were given verbally. Managers refused to put them in writing, even when staff challenged them.
Some Māori terms were restored before the final curriculum documents were published. Aotearoa was not restored. It was excluded as a synonym for New Zealand.
The Ministry said leaving it out kept terminology consistent with the title The New Zealand Curriculum. Think of it like a publisher's house style, using one name throughout for consistency. The Ministry did not explain why managers would not put the instructions in writing.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said her office did not ask for Māori words to be deleted.
Māori language advocate Stacey Morrison said Aotearoa should not be controversial. She said it is widely used as a term for New Zealand and appears in the names of more than 2000 businesses. She said its removal from the new school curriculums conflicted with the overarching curriculum framework commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi.
Te Akatea, the Māori principals association, criticised the decision. Its representative Bruce Jepsen said it was part of a series of decisions sidelining Māori. He described it as institutional racism. Principals Federation president Jason Miles said removing Aotearoa from the curriculum was sad.
The dispute sits inside a live rollout. The Ministry had planned to publish the complete Years 0 to 10 New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, the curriculum for Māori-medium schools, by 9 September 2026. Education Ministry Its 2026 implementation phase covers Years 0 to 10 English, Mathematics and Statistics, Te Reo Rangatira and Pangarau. The Ministry has stated the fully updated Health and Physical Education, The Arts and Te Mataiaho are now available. Education Ministry The 2027 phase covers Years 0 to 8 Science, Social Sciences, Putaiao and Pumanawa.
Hundreds of principals signed an open letter urging the minister to pause the rollout. They said they were concerned curriculum design had been outsourced to overseas consultants rather than locals who understand Aotearoa. School planning and reporting regulation changes were finalised on 18 September 2026.
The broader context here is process as much as wording. For people managing rollout in schools and in the Ministry, the practical questions are about authorisation, record keeping and coherence. Verbal instructions that staff say could not be put in writing create an accountability gap. A consistency rule tied to an English-medium title sits uneasily alongside a framework Treaty commitment and a parallel Māori-medium curriculum that carries Aotearoa in its name. With the principals call for a pause, concern about overseas consultants, and updated planning and reporting requirements, curriculum leaders must reconcile classroom resources, teacher workload and sector trust at the same time. How the Ministry documents those trade-offs will matter more than any single term.
