The Wire with Castor

From 2026 the government will introduce standardised testing for reading, writing and maths across all primary schools.

Year one students will be required to sit phonics tests at 20 and 40 weeks of schooling and years 3-6 will be required to take PAT and e-asTTle. Around 60% of schools already use this type of testing.

The reason for the introduction of testing is to improve education levels which are not up to standard, according to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

Education minister Erica Standford stated testing is important to keep parents informed about their child’s progress. Stanford continued that the tests will allow teachers and principals with the data to track in aggregate their school’s performance.

Producer Elle spoke to Faculty of Education and Social Work PhD student Tom Pearce about the policy.

The United Nations hosted Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) 2024 is taking place in Geneva this week, with Aotearoa’s Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission in attendance. 

Particularly, the commission will be commenting on Aotearoa’s historical approach to indigenous rights in Aotearoa as well as the approach of the current government. 

Wire host Castor spoke to Te Kāhui Tika Tangata’s indigenous rights governance partner, Dayle Takitimu, about the EMRIP assessment and what it could mean for our current and future governments.

The government’s plan to introduce boot camps for youth offenders and other more punitive law and order reforms have come under fire by experts for failing to address the root causes of crime and antisocial behaviour in Aotearoa. 

The recently implemented measures and rhetoric from the government have prompted a variety of discussions about how Aotearoa can properly tackle youth crime, the resources public agencies have to address and the measures that have worked so far. 

Oto spoke to Aaron Hendry, a youth worker and co-founder of Kickback, to discuss the government’s recent youth crime reforms, and the measures that have worked in the past that the government should be looking into instead.

For their weekly catch-up with the ACT Party, Wire host Sofia speaks to ACT MP Cameron Luxton about ACT  invoking the ‘agree to disagree’ provision over the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, the government’s plans to ‘flood’ the country with more housing, and the Easter Trading Bill.

She also speaks to University of Auckland senior lecturer of Architecture and Planning, Dr Elizabeth Aitken Rose, about the government’s plans to address the housing crisis

And she speaks to masters researcher at the University of Auckland and paediatric physiotherapist, Julie Cullen, about advice for children’s digital technology use in kura. 

Producer Oto speaks to youth worker Aaron Hendry from Kickback to discuss the best approaches to tackling youth offending.

Producer Josef speaks to Academic Psychiatrist, David Menkes about the rise in hospital admissions for eating disorders during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whakarongo mai!