History of education in New Zealand

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The development of state schooling in New Zealand has been shaped by social, economic and political interactions between Māori as tangata whenua, missionaries, settlers, voluntary organisations and the state of New Zealand which assumed a full legislative role in education in 1852. While the initiatives and systems were driven by colonial ambitions to protect and civilise the indigenous people through assimilation, and install a model of education based on European concepts of the purposes and delivery of learning, Māori actively engaged with the process to retain their traditional knowledge and language by participating in missions schools, contesting many aspects of Native schools and establishing Kura Kaupapa Māori. Arguably to create and reform an education system that aimed to reduce inequalities and enable social mobility,^[1]: p.276 a series of acts of parliament has attempted to resolve differences between competing interests as the country faced social, cultural and economic challenges. In response to criticism of the education system and the role of the state in managing and delivering equitable learning, there were radical reforms in the late 1980s. These changes resulted in the establishment of self-managing schools and a decentralisation of the system, with the Department of Education being replaced by the Ministry of Education whose role has been to implement government reforms. While these systems are under review, they remain in place as of 2023.