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Luxon has long listed education as one of his priority areas, and the move to change the math curriculum ahead of schedule fits in well with his “back to basics” approach to education.
Interestingly, he revealed that the statement was made within days of him seeing the results of a survey of Year 8 students which showed that nearly two-thirds of them were more than a year behind in maths.
Luxon is a goal-oriented person. But he is far from achieving his goals.
He therefore called on Education Secretary Erica Stanford and the Department of Education to provide an explanation and told them to fix the problem.
It provides the perfect Party Congress Notice. The topic is very convincing: education is never a loser in any political party.
Party loyalists will respond well to this. No doubt so will parents, who will be shocked at how far their children have fallen behind.
This reinforced Luxon’s image as a man of action, someone who always took action with a sense of urgency. His purpose in attending the meeting was to show members that he was not just talking about “turning things around” and delivering on his promises.
Luxon discovered a problem.
He jumped in and soon announced the solution – a change of course ahead of schedule.
Stanford tackled some tough issues — in response to the most obvious criticism, the school announced $20 million for faculty professional development, new guidelines to help teachers teach under the new curriculum and programs for students who are falling behind.
The solution to this problem is not too difficult: as Labour leader Chris Hipkins points out, Labour itself has been planning the same curriculum reforms.
It’s a common political move: highlight some really bad numbers (especially if they can be blamed on the previous administration), wait for the public to freak out, then announce a solution.
This is not to say that this is a cynical approach. Luxon has a genuine commitment to education and sees it as a key issue for future economic and social development.
Education is also politically important. Luxon is good at developing education policies that please parents – from structured literacy, truancy, mobile phone bans, to set reading, writing and teaching time. He also looks at the longer term goal: if students do not achieve at an early stage, what will happen to their later education.
Luxon is also involved: he has set goals covering a range of areas, including education.
He may claim he doesn’t care about the polls, but he relies on them to boost his approval rating. He knows they will judge him.
He acknowledged that lower levels of maths achievement would make it harder to meet the 2030 target of 80 per cent of pupils achieving the grade. But he said it would not change the status quo: it just meant there was no time to waste.
Luxon’s operating model also became clear. If he saw a problem with a portfolio, especially a large one, he would not hesitate to step in, rather than wait for officials to sort out the paperwork or see if the minister could fix it.
He is involved in regular meetings on finance at the New Zealand Ministry of Health and has also been involved in the Mathematics Inquiry’s ‘Please Explain’ campaign.
When Luxembourg first became prime minister, he was asked why he did not give himself a ministerial portfolio like his predecessor.
He responded that he preferred to see things from a helicopter perspective so that when trouble came, he could jump in anywhere, anytime.
At times, he has practically become a know-it-all.
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