Mistake to omit creative arts technologies from new school subjects, drama teachers say

The drama teachers' association says the government has made a mistake by omitting technologies that support the creative arts from its list of new industry-led school subjects.

The nine subjects would be developed by industry skills boards to provide clear pathways to further training and jobs for secondary school students in Years 12-13.

Whakaari Aotearoa Drama New Zealand said it should have included a subject that covered areas like lighting, sound, staging, costume, and set design.

The organisation's president Annette Thomson said failing to do so would sever students' pathway into industries such as film and television that had critical skill shortages.

She said currently teens could earn credits toward an NCEA qualification while they participated in backstage roles like lighting or sound for school productions, but that would not be possible under the new qualification being introduced in 2029 because students would have to study entire subjects and there was no subject that covered those skills.

Thomson said the decision endangered the government's plan to grow the creative sector's economic contribution to $22 billion a year by 2030.

"We feel like they're not really thinking about some of these things that are actually important. They do actively contribute to GDP and to our students," she said.

"All we're seeing is a cutting, a reducing, a narrowing of subjects in the arts."

The association called for the government to create an Event and Entertainment Technology subject and a distinct Creative Industries Pathway that covered technical production, design, arts management, and digital media.