Eighteen errors have been spotted and fixed in new maths resources funded by the Ministry of Education. 

Issues include incorrect sums, a wrong number labelled in te reo Māori, and incorrectly saying “triangles” instead of “rectangles” in an answer. 

Education Minister Erica Stanford confirmed once she was made aware of this, she directed her ministry to fix the errors, and communicate that they had been sorted to the sector. 

Issues arise in workbooks for those between Years 3 and 8. 

The first page of errors that have been rectified include incorrect sums, shapes, and answers. 

The first page of errors that have been corrected include wrong answers, some off by significant margins. The listed answer to one problem was 1,024 and had to be changed to the correct answer of 19,875. 

A financial mistake in one of the books, supplied by “Maths - No Problem” was off by $1000. 

In a separate workbook, the number four in te reo Māori was labelled rua, the word for two, instead of whā. 

A mistake involving te reo had to be corrected. 

In a statement, acting Ministry of Education curriculum centre leader Pauline Cleaver said as students and teachers have engaged with materials throughout the year, a “small number of minor errors” were identified. 

“These have now been resolved, and updates are being shared with schools via Tāhūrangi [the curriculum centre].” 

Cleaver added it was “not uncommon” for minor errors to be spotted in the first print run of new educational resources, and while suppliers regularly review and update materials, schools are also encouraged to report any issues. 

From this year, Years 0-8 schools have been able to order Ministry-funded maths resources to support them to teach the revised mathematics and statistics curriculum. 

It comes after the Government’s directive to teach an hour a day of reading, writing and maths in its policy to “teach the basics brilliantly”. 

The issue was raised by the Ministry of Education in a recent bulletin for school leaders, which regularly lists updates about changes in the education sector. 

In this, it wrote it was aware of “some errors” in the maths resources being funded by the Ministry of Education. 

“Our resource providers regularly review their print and digital resources to correct any errors that have been reported, and to ensure accuracy,” the bulletin added. 

It is asking school leaders to inform the ministry of any potential further errors. 

A dedicated reporting channel has been provided to support schools through any issues that may arise. 

The Ministry of Education is promising to continue to keep schools informed, and has said any future updates or corrections will continue to be documented. 

Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament’s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.