‘Second class of citizen’: Māori principals’ leader objects to ‘New Zealand’ over ‘Aotearoa’
November 12, 2026
Summarised by Centrist
Institutional racism. Discrimination. Marginalised Māori knowledge. Harm to children. The prospect of creating a “second class of citizen”. A national disgrace.
These are among the concerns raised by Māori principals’ leader Bruce Jepsen over Education Ministry curriculum reforms, including the decision to consistently use the name ‘New Zealand’ rather than ‘Aotearoa’ in The New Zealand Curriculum.
According to RNZ, Education Ministry whistleblowers alleged that managers verbally instructed staff to remove Aotearoa and other Māori words from curriculum documents, refusing to put the instructions in writing.
The ministry explained that Aotearoa was omitted as an alternative name for New Zealand to maintain consistency with the curriculum's official title.
But Jepsen, from Māori principals’ association Te Akatea, described the ministry's wider decisions as institutional racism, questioning whose knowledge was being marginalised and whose voices were being excluded.
He warned that placing one language above another could lead to a second class of citizen and described the wider actions as a national disgrace.
Māori language advocate Stacey Morrison said removing Aotearoa undermined the curriculum's Treaty commitments, while Principals Federation president Jason Miles described its omission as sad.
The Waitangi Tribunal separately found that wider curriculum reforms breached Treaty principles, including through reduced emphasis on Māori language and knowledge.
However, Education Minister Erica Stanford denied that her office had instructed officials to remove Māori words, saying the revised curriculum contained more Māori terminology than ever before.
The ministry also rejected suggestions it had sought to remove Māori knowledge or perspectives, pointing out that te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori, te ao Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi remained throughout the curriculum.
Meanwhile, the ministry has faced separate allegations that managers avoided written instructions to prevent scrutiny under the Official Information Act.
Editor's note: RNZ gives considerable weight to claims of institutional racism, discrimination and second-class citizenship without reporting any explanation from Jepsen of how the specific decision to favour New Zealand over Aotearoa would produce those consequences.
His criticisms concern wider reforms, some of which the Waitangi Tribunal has independently criticised. But those wider findings do not establish that the curriculum's choice of country name would create second-class citizens.
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