Experts say New Zealand children are facing a postcode lottery when it comes to schooling and neurodivergent kids are the most at risk.
It comes after a recent NCEA pilot revealed some startling figures when it comes to literacy standards in New Zealand.
More than 360 schools took part in the pilot which focused on literacy and numeracy as a co-requisite to NCEA.
But two-thirds of New Zealand students failed the test, with the pass rates for writing only at 34.5 percent, and reading at 66.9 percent.
Dyslexia consultant Mike Styles told AM on Wednesday the pilot highlights issues around inconsistency in schools.
"I don't put any blame on individual teachers, I put the blame on the Ministry of Education, on the Minister of Education and moreover on the Colleges of Education where teachers receive their preservice training," Styles said.
He said teachers are being given out-of-date tools and there's no standard rules for how things are taught across the country.
"There are modern up-to-date reading programmes… These are up-to-date evidence-based practices that do achieve results but sadly right now, most schools in New Zealand are not using that approach because their teachers haven't been equipped to use that approach.
"The Tomorrow's Schools made every school a Government entity so they can deliver whatever reading programme they see fit and if they deliver an old fashioned programme then so be it.
"There is actually a postcode problem here, some schools… do good practice, other schools do nothing. We can't afford the luxury of having a postcode level of standards where some kids get best practices and many don't. The neurodiverse/dyslexic children of New Zealand continue to get a very bad deal.
It's a view shared by teacher and learning development advocate Penny O'Brien who told AM the results can't be blamed on COVID-19.
"There is going to be an impact definitely post COVID but this is much longer than two and a half years, this is something that has been sitting in our system for a very, very long time," O'Brien said.
"This is a long time coming and realistically we need a system where we are all working together and where the stakes are the same for every single child regardless of where they go to school and where they live."
Watch the full interview above.
