Climate change label dropped from curriculum, but underlying science remains

Summarised by Centrist

Explicit references to climate change have been removed from the final Years 0–10 Science and Social Sciences curriculums. 

However, the Ministry of Education says students will continue learning the science behind climate change and its environmental effects.

Earlier drafts included climate change, but the final documents leave its detailed treatment until senior secondary school. 

Consultation feedback included arguments that climate change was too complex for Year 5 Geography. The curriculum being replaced also left the subject until Year 11.

University of Waikato education professor Chris Eames described the change as “incredible and bewildering”. He said excluding the term could leave younger students and some teachers struggling to discuss events such as floods.

Intermediate science teacher John Marsh said teachers would still cover climate change because it arises naturally when teaching habitats, atmospheric systems and the water cycle.

Marsh described the final Science curriculum as “clear” and an improvement on the overcrowded draft. However, he said it remained too focused on prescribed content and needed more emphasis on scientific processes, including interpreting data.

The Ministry said climate change was “best taught in ways that matched students’ age and stage of learning”. Although the term itself was absent, it said “the science that underpins it is taught throughout”.

Students will study how climate systems work, why climate changes, sea-level rise in New Zealand and the Pacific, connections between rainfall and flooding, and the effects of deforestation on the climate.

The new curriculums are due to be taught from next year.

Read more at RNZ

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