- Hon Erica Stanford
Education Minister Erica Stanford welcomed Estonian Education and Research Minister Dr Kristina Kallas to New Zealand this week, providing an opportunity to learn from each other's successes, lessons, and practices in delivering a world-leading education reform.
"Estonia consistently ranks among the top performers in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study," Ms Stanford says.
"The opportunity to meet in New Zealand with Minister Kallas forms part of my work to engage with international experts and thought leaders, from high-performing education systems, to bring evidence-based best practice into every school and every classroom in New Zealand," Ms Stanford says.
"I'm particularly interested in how Estonia achieves student success in reading, maths, and science, and how their high-performing education system achieves strong academic achievement with equity and access to digital technology.
"Minister Kallas was here to look at our education reforms, and made comments in the media that many other European countries are also looking closely at New Zealand is doing. She was also very supportive of New Zealand's knowledge-rich curriculum, which she noted Estonia has had for many years."
Minister Kallas and Minister Stanford also attended the Teaching and Learning Symposium, hosted by Auckland University of Technology, where Minister Kallas delivered an address on Estonia's AI-Leap (TI-Hüpe) programme.
The programme embeds AI literacy and training in higher cognitive processes into schools to help prepare learners for interacting and working with AI.
"AI presents an opportunity for New Zealanders and the Government is committed to helping Kiwis to harness it in their jobs and industries where appropriate. This includes new subjects we are introducing at the secondary level," Ms Stanford says.
As part of the visit, Minister Kallas also visited schools in Auckland and Wellington to meet with students, school leaders, and senior officials from the Ministry of Education, New Zealand Qualifications Authority, and the Education Review Office.
Given our shared interest in strengthening collaboration between our countries in science and research, Minister Kallas also met the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor and with Universities New Zealand, including representatives of our universities on the Research Committee.
"Our meetings have been very insightful and valuable - I acknowledge the outstanding work Minister Kallas and Estonia are doing in their education system."
Notes to editor:
Estonia has a high-performing education system, recognised for combining high academic achievement with strong equity. It consistently ranks among the top performers in international assessments like the OECD's latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, particularly in reading, math, and science.
