Taxpayer Talk: Professor Elizabeth Rata on the decline of education in New Zealand

Why did New Zealand’s education system "turn to custard" in 1971? In this episode of Taxpayer Talk, host Peter Williams sits down with Professor Elizabeth Rata to explore how the nation moved from a world-class, knowledge-rich curriculum to one dominated by "social constructivism" and "learnification”. Elizabeth also lifts the lid on how the rejection of liberalism and nation-building has failed several generations of Kiwi children, and the challenge of turning around the "oil tanker" of modern education to restore academic excellence. Support the show

You can listen to Taxpayer Talk: Professor Elizabeth Rata on the decline of education in New Zealand online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Taxpayer Talk: Professor Elizabeth Rata on the decline of education in New Zealand is an episode from Taxpayer Talk - podcast by the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union by New Zealand Taxpayers' Union Inc..

This episode is 62:03 long.

This episode was published on Apr 23, 2026.

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