Education was a major sticking point in the 2023 election – with parties arguing about the best way to tackle educational inequality, high truancy rates and low performance.

The new government has a raft of changes on the way for schools. Both ACT and NZ First included pet education policies in their coalition agreements with National.

Many of these policies have drawn mixed responses from teachers and education experts.

Here is a peek at what is on the cards for schools.

Relationship and sexuality education guidelines will be scrapped

The relationship and sexuality education guidelines are set to be thrown out.

This is a NZ First policy. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters campaigned on getting rid of “gender ideology” from schools, and his coalition agreement with National included a clause that the guidelines must be “removed and replaced”.

It should be noted that NZ First MP Tracey Martin first introduced the guidelines back in 2020.

When will they go and what will they be replaced with? We don’t know yet.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the timeline hadn’t been set in stone, but noted that the money was set to come from existing education funding.

The removal of the guidelines has garnered some backlash. Co-author of the guidelines, Professor Katie Fitzpatrick, called the decision “repressive” and “backwards”.

Ban the use of cellphones in schools

Cellphones will be banned in all schools from the start of 2024.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon campaigned on this policy and said it would help children focus on their lessons.

Students may be allowed to use phones for educational purposes or health reasons, but it’s up to each school to decide how to enforce the ban.

Previously, each school could decide its own cellphone policy.

Charter schools are back

The ACT Party also included a key education policy in their coalition agreement with National – a promise to reintroduce charter schools.

David Seymour, the Deputy Prime Minister-in-waiting, first introduced charter schools during ACT’s confidence and supply arrangement with the National government in 2011.

They were later scrapped by the Labour Government in 2018.

Charter schools are state-funded but privately run and are allowed to set their own curriculum, pay-rates for teachers, and have other school terms.

When will charter schools return? It’s not yet decided.

In response to Stuff’s questions on the timeline, Education Minister Stanford said discussions with ACT on its coalition deal are ongoing.

Hour of reading, writing and maths

From the start of 2024, all primary schools and intermediate schools will also be required to teach students an hour of reading, writing and maths every day.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule. Schools just need to hit an hour on average – so this will look different in different classrooms.

It is part of the new government’s 100-day plan and was core to National’s campaign education policies.

There will also be 2 annual tests in reading, writing, maths and science for students in years 3 to 8 tracking their progress.

Changes to New Zealand’s histories curriculum

ACT has also included a clause in its coalition agreement that the Government “restore balance to the Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories curriculum”.

The curriculum was introduced in 2023 and includes a greater emphasis on Māori and Pasifika histories.

What will these changes look like? Again – we don’t yet know.

Questions on this topic to the ACT and National parties went unanswered, with both parties saying it was too soon to say.

However, the ACT Party’s position is that the curriculum focuses on colonisation too heavily and “pushes a number of left-wing narratives”.