Deep Concerns Over Draft HPE Curriculum

Opinion: As experts and advocates for Health and Physical Education (HPE) in Aotearoa New Zealand, we are deeply concerned about the direction and quality of the newly released draft HPE curriculum.

The Ministry states that this curriculum is “knowledge-rich and based on the learning sciences,” yet it clearly falls short on both accounts. In our reading, the draft relies on outdated pedagogical ideas that modern learning sciences have long moved beyond. It strips away decades of progress and research in how young people learn to move, think, and be healthy. This curriculum is not based on expert knowledge of what core knowledge is in Health and Physical Education, is not grounded in contemporary science, and does not reflect international best practice.

HPE is a unique learning area, grounded in practical, relational, and cultural forms of learning. Yet, the new curriculum reads as if written by someone with little understanding of the field. It is technically inaccurate, conceptually shallow, and pedagogically regressive. It abandons the rich conceptual foundations of our internationally acclaimed curriculum, foundations grounded in socio-ecological thinking, Hauora, health promotion, and values. These are the very ideas that made New Zealand a global leader in HPE.

Instead, it substitutes old models, prescriptive categories, and technique-driven content, which reduces young people's learning about wellbeing and movement. This approach is one we left behind decades ago because it is not based on contemporary learning sciences, provides little meaningful learning for young people, and excludes the very learners who most need to see themselves in HPE.

Even more concerning is the quality of the writing itself. Teachers, principals, academics, and curriculum specialists across the country have independently raised the same alarm. While the Ministry has stated that some aspects of the writing curriculum have been outsourced to Australia, an additional concern is that it appears to have been partially generated using AI. We do not say this lightly. The document exhibits unmistakable hallmarks of machine-generated text, characterised by generic phrasing, inconsistent terminology, and a lack of conceptual coherence. Whether or not AI was involved, we cannot ignore the evidence: this curriculum has not been developed with the necessary expertise, consultation, or care our young people deserve.

New Zealand has led the world in how we envision Health and Physical Education, with a curriculum that invites creativity, voice, critical thinking, and movement experiences, reflecting who our learners are and the lives they lead. Other nations are only now catching up. And yet this draft pushes us backwards, toward a narrow and outdated vision of PE that no longer serves our tamariki or the diverse communities they are growing up in. This is not a curriculum that navigates toward new horizons.
It is one that falls disappointingly short of what our young people need.

In the first instance, we call on the Minister and the Ministry of Education to clarify who authored this curriculum and the qualifications they hold in HPE. We want them to guarantee that the curriculum was not outsourced nor generated by AI without robust expert oversight. Secondly, we want them to engage with the physical education profession in Aotearoa New Zealand immediately to rebuild trust and co-develop a curriculum that truly reflects the needs of young people in Aotearoa New Zealand, the learning sciences of Physical Education, including research on embodiment, motivation, equity, and motor learning. We want them to restore the conceptual foundations that made HPE in Aotearoa a global leader.

Our young people need a curriculum that supports identity, confidence, joy in movement, relational wellbeing, and lifelong participation, not one that recycles outdated ideas and ignores modern evidence.

We are ready to work constructively with the Ministry. But we will not stand by while the future of our learning area is compromised.

New Zealand deserves better. Our students deserve better. And Physical Education deserves better.

About Alan

Alan Ovens is an Associate Professor. His research focusses on the interacting themes of education, wellbeing and human movement. This work has a particular focus on the changing nature of educational practices and how these emerge and become enabled and constrained within contemporary settings.

Conceptually his work draws on sociological and educational theory and is rooted in the application of qualitative and post-qualitative methodologies. In 2021 he was awarded the Sir Alexander Gillies Medal by Physical Education New Zealand for distinguished and outstanding service to Physical Education.