Great news: Holocaust education now part of the curriculum

The Post reports:

The Holocaust will have a place in New Zealand’s secondary school curriculum from next year, in a move welcomed by educators but accompanied by concerns about the prescriptive nature of the curriculum.

The Ministry of Education’s revised year 0-10 social sciences curriculum, released on Wednesday, will be rolled out from 2027.

Students will learn about the Holocaust as part of the year 10 history curriculum, within a broader study of the world wars.

The inclusion comes after more than 500 submissions in support. One of these was from the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, which has long pushed for the topic’s inclusion at secondary school.

I am one of those who put in a submission.

In a poll done by Curia in 2021, 53% of adults said they knew virtually nothing or just a little about the Holocaust. It was 65% for 31 to 45 year olds.

Only 39% of NZers knew that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. With women it was only 31% and only 22% of under 30s knew this.

Hopefully this change will stop any further generations of NZers knowing so little about the Holocaust.