A Curriculum for the 21st Century

The New Zealand Curriculum acknowledges the need to build an education system for the 21st century that will secure our place in the global knowledge society of the future.  Traditional methods of teaching and learning, based on the industrial age, will not prepare students for the future.  Whether we acknowledge it or not we are currently preparing students for jobs that do not exist, to use technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve problems that we do not know are problems yet. 

Knowledge is expanding at a breath-taking pace. It is estimated that in the four years from 1999 to 2002, the amount of new information produced approximately equaled the amount produced in the entire history of the world up to that time. As a consequence, effective education and learning can no longer be focused just on the transmission of pieces of information that once memorised constitute a stable storehouse of knowledge.

Education must help students learn how to learn in powerful ways so they can manage the demands of changing information, technology, work and social conditions. But in changing the system we must realise how profoundly different our children’s lives will be. The system must be flexible enough to respond to them rather than forcing them to fit the system. 

However, some things will still be the same. Our future still depends on our being able to bring children up in our homes and school children who are full of wit, curiosity, knowledge, and compassion. They need to live and learn in an environment that is caring and safe, while also being challenging.  An environment where their diversity is respected and where they can learn to care about and stand up for what is good in our society and recognise and change what is wrong.