Educational reform in New Zealand; What is going on?

It is not at all easy to ‘get to the bottom’ of the dramatic changes taking place in New Zealand education. Before attempting to get beneath the surface, the following observations need to be made: (1) the economic, social and educational reforms are by no means unique to New Zealand; (2) there is a consistency between the government’s economic policy from 1984 to 1987 and its educational policy since 1987; and (3) there are, nevertheless, forces at work which are local not world-wide and educationally based not simply reflections of economic concerns. Current developments have to be understood in terms of subtle interactions between these three factors.