Documents show the government cut the Treaty of Waitangi as an overarching principle of its school curriculum rewrite two years ago but quickly back-tracked on the idea.

The documents began with an Education Ministry report to Education Minister Erica Stanford dated 12 April 2024 setting out the "overarching design principles" for the rewrite.

The principles did not include the treaty, which was a departure from Te Mātaiaho, the framework for the existing curriculum at that time.

Nearly a week later, 18 April 2024, the ministry prepared another, similar report for the minister that included the treaty as an overarching principle and the minister signed it the next day.

But on 30 April 2024 she signed the earlier document which had no mention of the treaty.

Just over a month later the treaty was back again in principles approved by Cabinet in a paper dated 4 June 2024.

The ministry initially told RNZ the changes related to the government's coalition agreement but later rescinded that explanation saying it was mistaken.

"The curriculum changes arose from discussions between officials and the Minister about how Te Tiriti o Waitangi should be reflected in the curriculum. The Minister's final decisions are set out in the Cabinet paper Establishing a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum. The key point is that Cabinet ultimately decided to retain references to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and New Zealand's bicultural foundations in the curriculum," the ministry said.

The documents including the treaty were proactively made public, but the document that omitted it was obtained after an Official Information Act request by a former ministry curriculum writer, Dr Claire Coleman.

Coleman told RNZ the work she was involved with at the ministry bore more relation to the principles in the document signed on 30 April than those in the Cabinet paper.

Former ministry curriculum writer, Dr Claire Coleman.

Supplied / University of Waikato

"It correlates a lot with what we were being asked to do in terms of taking te reo Māori and reference to Te Tiriti out of our position paper documents," she said.

The role of the treaty in education has been hotly debated in recent years.

Teachers last year warned draft curriculums had noticeably fewer Māori words and Treaty references and the government's sudden decision to cut schools' treaty obligations from the Education and Training Act sparked widespread outrage.

The two ministry reports bore the same title "Design for the New Zealand Curriculum change programme", ID number, and, mistakenly, the same date,12 April 2024.

The report signed on 19 April said: "The New Zealand Curriculum supports and empowers all students to learn and achieve personal excellence, regardless of their individual circumstances. It acknowledges Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand, while reflecting New Zealand's cultural diversity and valuing the histories and traditions of all its people."

The version signed on 30 April said: "The New Zealand Curriculum is designed to deliver excellent and equitable outcomes for all New Zealand children (including akonga Māori, Pacific students and those with learning needs) by providing the same high standard curriculum content to every teacher and student regardless of where they live. This approach reduces variability, supporting those who are currently underserved by our education system."

However, the words in brackets were both struck out and underlined.

Just over a month later the 4 June Cabinet paper showed the government had returned to something closer to the original wording: "The New Zealand Curriculum must support and empower all students to learn and achieve personal excellence, regardless of individual circumstances. It should acknowledge Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand while reflecting the cultural diversity of New Zealand and valuing the histories and traditions of all its people. All learners should be supported to reach their potential, and all teachers and leaders should be supported to hold high expectations for all students and differentiate teaching to meet the needs of individual learners."

The version signed on 19 April said it would strengthen the "Understand, Know, Do" model for arranging the curriculum, but the version signed on 30 April said that model would be replaced.

The version signed on 30 April said that model would be replaced.

Screenshot / Ministry of Education

The latter document said a consistent model for organising the curriculum would reduce the cognitive load for teachers, though that reference was both under-lined and struck out.

The June Cabinet paper restored reference to Understand, Know, Do.

Both versions of the ministry's report said learners should be supported to reach their full potential including "the use of te reo Māori, tikanga Māori, and contexts that matter for all learners, recognising the wide variety of languages, cultures, and identities".

Both documents also said the curriculum was underpinned by the science of learning, knowledge-rich, inclusive of evidence-informed teaching practices, clear and easy to use, internationally comparable, and supported the development of key competencies.

The ministry told RNZ it was normal for revised versions of the same advice to retain the same document ID number.

"Following meetings, the report was intended to reflect where discussions between officials and the Minister had reached at that point in time. It was later recognised that the first version did not fully capture those discussions. A revised version was therefore prepared and the first version should have been withdrawn," it said.

But it later said: "Normally, where changes are required, the Ministry would either replace the original version or issue a new Report with a different METIS number and date. Neither occurred in this instance. In addition, because staff were working at pace, the two versions were not recorded in Ministry systems in the usual way, which led to confusion about the sequence and status of the documents when they were later reviewed for release."

The ministry said there were negligible changes between the two versions.

"The Minister's final decisions are set out in the Cabinet paper Establishing a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum. The final Cabinet-approved position retained reference to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and New Zealand's bicultural foundations," it said.