Stanford’s Emails Reveal External Influences on Education Decisions

On 22 January, 2024, Stanford emails Michael Johnston, the chair of her Ministerial Advisory Group, from her personal gmail account with this curious message: “I will ring shortly. Please find attached the version of SLOs that we sent to the MOE and the response we received back.” Attached are the ‘Earth & Space Science Learning Outcomes For Assessment: Companion to the NCEA NZC Level 1 Earth and Space Science Learning Matrix’.

Why is Johnston part of this conversation?

On 24 January, 2024, Johnston replies: “I’ve had some additional thoughts about the Learning Objectives documents after speaking with [redacted] earlier today. I apologise for not realising these things sooner.”

It appears they have talked, and that Johnston is part of Stanford’s decision-making team.

This is a problem. He is not a Ministry employee, and his has nothing to do with the MAG, being far out of its scope.

What this demonstrates is Stanford is willing to be guided by voices outside of the Ministry, such as Johnston. PRIME Maths helped her decision-making regarding the Maths curriculum. Rata certainly seems to be of the opinion she has a voice too, probably because it is clear Stanford wanted her involved in the curriculum review.

Against this background influence, it is alarming the extent to which this Minister is involved in the minutiae of pedagogical decisions, like the removal of te reo Māori from textbooks. It represents a pattern of her being involved in operational matters — highly unusual behaviour for a Minister — where decisions made consistently favour the interests of those external parties.