New Zealand's History Curriculum: Education or Indoctrination?

Since the announcement of a new history curriculum in schools in years 1-10, concern has been raised by historians as to its accuracy. Rather than Maori history predominating it was suggested there should be a balanced approach to cover both the positives and negatives in our nation's story. The final analysis has concentrated upon the positive achievements and developments affecting Maori, and how polices by successive governments since 1840 have adversely affected their culture. This has left many gaps, including the inter-tribal wars in the early nineteenth century, much modern economic development and very secondary coverage of the experiences and contributions of other groups. The conclusion is that the Ministry of Education is engaging in social engineering by indoctrinating young people with a slanted, Maori-dominated view of our history, and they have lost sight of the balance required for an honest and interesting syllabus.