1/12/2025
H Patel
[FYI request #32804 email]
Tēnā koe H Patel
OIA: GEMS-45638 – Home economics
Thank you for your email of 10 November 2025 to the Ministry of Education (the Ministry)
requesting the following information:
I refer to the Ministry’s response of 10 November 2025 to my OIA request (MoE #1353163 -
https://fyi.org.nz/request/32297).
Part 4 of my original request sought “any working documents mapping the current subject content
(Food and Nutrition, Home Economics, Food Technology) to the proposed/replacement subjects,
showing how content wil be retained, merged, or omitted.”
The response referred to a publicly available video and fact sheet, and stated that “no other working
documents exist of the sort described.”
These materials summarised policy intent but did not appear to address my specific request for
comparative or mapping documents. To this point, I am therefore requesting:
- Clarification on whether the Ministry holds any detailed comparative documents - such as draft
tables, spreadsheets, analyses, or mappings - created during the curriculum refresh process that link
the specific existing learning content encompassed by Home Economics to the proposed new
subjects.
- If such records exist, please release them or state the grounds for withholding.
- If no such records were ever created, please confirm this explicitly under section 18(e) of the Act,
or another section if applicable.
Please note that I am now requesting this information across all levels of the curriculum, fol owing
the release of the draft curriculum for years 0-10 in addition to the senior subject list for years 11-13.
For the avoidance of confusion, I am referring to Home Economics as it is defined in the New
Zealand Curriculum (2007), pages 22 and 23.
Your request has been considered under the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Wellington National Office, 1 The Terrace, Levels 5 to 14, Wellington 6011
PO Box 1666, Wel ington 6140, DX SR51201 Phone: +64 4 463 8000
As advised in previous responses to you, the Ministry does not have any specific comparative
documentation or material on ‘specific existing learning content encompassed by Home Economics
[as it relates] to the proposed new subjects’. I am therefore refusing your request under section
18(e) of the Act, as the requested information does not exist.
We refer you to the Fact Sheet, provided in our response to you of 10 November 2025, which
summarises how subject content relating to Home Economics wil be treated in the refreshed Year
11-13 curriculum.
Please note, the Ministry is stil in the process of proactively releasing advice on the development
of the refreshed curriculum for the Years 11-13 subjects, and it is stil our intention to send you a
link when this is published before the end of the year.
Thank you again for your email. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review my decision
on your request, in accordance with section 28 of the Act. You can do this by writing to
[email address] or to Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.
Nāku noa, nā
Cindy McDonald
Principal Advisor
Government, Executive and Ministerial Services
OIA: GEMS-45638
