Call for NZ history to be more widely taught
Students ‘‘groan’’ at having to learn New Zealand history and some teachers are feeling pressured to ‘‘quieten down’’ the amount taught in high schools.
Northcote College history teacher and chair of the NZ History Teachers’ Association Graeme Ball told MPs at the Ma¯ori Affairs select committee yesterday that there’s no data on how much of the country’s colonial history is even taught.
Social studies is compulsory at year 9 and 10 but ‘‘as they exit year 10 we’ve lost any opportunity to share something of our past for the whole cohort’’ because history isn’t compulsory.
While Ball says compulsion is not the answer, he says finding a way to convince more schools the importance of teaching New Zealand’s history is necessary. He told a story of travelling to Ireland to do the Easter rising walks and meeting a 25-year-old barmaid who said she found Irish history ‘‘boring’’ at school. ‘‘I couldn’t believe it, the Irish history is incredible . . . now that she was in her mid-20s she said she was starting to find it more interesting.’’
He said that experience confirmed for him that part of the issue is ‘‘perception’’ and students won’t choose to do history if they think too much of their own past will be part of the curriculum.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said schools design their own curriculum and there is a lot of content around New Zealand history that can be taught.
‘‘I think we could do better – I haven’t seen any evidence that we’re exemplary in this regard, but I think that’s a question of making sure we provide better resources.’’
Students often aren’t interested in learning about what went on in their own backyard, yet, once they’ve spent time studying it the satisfaction rate ends up being about 95 per cent, Ball said.