AEC - PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!
To Parents, Whānau, and School Board Members Across Aotearoa
Protect Te Tiriti o Waitangi! Protect Our Children’s Future!
What’s happening right now
The Government is about to pass the Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2) - legislation, among other directives, that removes the legal requirement for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
As reported by the NZ Herald, “the Government will remove the requirement for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.” (NZ Herald, 2025).
This is not a symbolic edit. It is a fundamental dismantling of what makes our education system inclusive, equitable, and uniquely Aotearoa New Zealand.
It will have a ripple effect, influencing curriculum design, assessment, funding priorities, and ultimately, how schools define and measure “success.”
Why this matters
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not a “nice-to-have.” It is the moral and legal foundation that ensures Māori students, and by extension, all students, can learn in ways that honour their identity, language, culture, and wellbeing.
Removing Te Tiriti from the Education Act will:
Silence Māori voice at the board table - where decisions about our schools’ direction are made.
Erode equity by turning back decades of progress toward fair outcomes for Māori learners.
Reduce local autonomy and replace community-driven education with a one-size-fits-all national model.
Re-centre schools around compliance and standardised “achievement”, rather than creativity, care, and belonging.
When Te Tiriti is sidelined, the wellbeing of all of our tamariki is sidelined too.
The damage these changes will do to our young people
Because if we allow this shift (without challenge) the consequences will cascade:
By making educational achievement the overriding goal, we risk forcing schools to chase narrow metrics (test scores, pass rates) at the expense of holistic, human-centred education. Students who don’t “fit” the mainstream mould — those with learning differences, trauma, socio-economic stress, cultural disconnection — will be left even further behind.
When equitable outcomes for Māori become a “supporting objective” rather than an embedded promise, we weaken the alliance of Te Tiriti. We risk perpetuating the entrenched disparities in education, rather than disrupting them. As one analyst writes in The Spinoff, “By promoting one objective as ‘paramount’, you demote all others.”
When local curricula are sidelined in favour of nationalised “programmes,” we risk losing relevance, cultural responsiveness, and community voice. That means students who thrive when their identity and context are honoured may disengage, or feel unseen.
These structural shifts will ripple into curriculum design, assessment, funding priorities and the day-to-day life of schools. If the mass incentive is achievement above all, everything else (wellbeing, creativity, cultural identity, belonging, critical thinking) becomes collateral.
Ultimately, we risk a two-tier system: those who can navigate the new “achievement” regime, and those who cannot. Our mission of inclusive excellence and pastoral care, which we hold dear, becomes harder — and for some students, almost impossible.
We cannot stay silent
This Bill signals a clear message from the government: education is to be measured, not nurtured.
But we, parents, whānau, educators, and community members, can send a louder one:
We do not accept an education system that turns its back on Te Tiriti o Waitangi!
What you can do - starting today
Share this message. Talk about it at home, online, and in your communities. Post it, print it, spread it.
Support your school leaders. Principals and boards need your backing to speak up publicly. Encourage them and stand beside them when they do.
Write to your local MP. Tell them you oppose removing Te Tiriti from the Education Act. Make it clear this is not negotiable.
Write or sign open letters. Use your voice to remind decision-makers that education is about people, not politics.
Join peaceful protests and community actions. Visibility matters; let Parliament see that Aotearoa New Zealand will not quietly accept the erasure of Te Tiriti from our schools.
This is a turning point
Our education system once led the world because it was human-centred, not political, because it honoured partnership, not power.
If we allow this Bill to pass without resistance, we tell our children that Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the values it upholds, no longer matter in the places where they learn, grow, and dream.
Let’s ensure they inherit classrooms that reflect who we are: a nation built on partnership, care, and collective strength.
Kia tū, kia kaha, kia manawanui.
Stand up. Speak out. Support your schools. Protect Te Tiriti. Protect our future.
Aotearoa Educators Collective is an umbrella collective created to support education thought leaders who share a common interest in promoting progressive ideals in education. The group includes academics, principals and teachers and is not aligned to any political party.
We need to be more radical than that. I am actually tired of talking with community, writing letters, sharing information. We need to actually be the disobedient, disruptive, activists that they already think we are. I think we need to talk with students. Join with them and walk out of our classrooms together.