Education Outdoors New Zealand says the government has changed its mind over the future of outdoor education as a secondary school subject.

It said outdoor education had been dropped from a list of subjects that would be developed by industry bodies ahead of the replacement of the NCEA qualification from 2028.

Instead the Education Ministry would develop the subject for study by students in Years 12 and 13.

EONZ chief executive Fiona McDonald said it was celebrating the decision because it would ensure the subject retained broad appeal to secondary students.

"The advantage of a ministry-led subject for outdoor education is it can be a much broader curriculum than just focusing on the skills and knowledge needed for students to go on into the outdoor ed industry," McDonald said.

She said it would lead students to all sorts of further study without necessarily wanting to learn in what she described as "a rather small outdoor industry".

McDonald said shifting the subject to industry-driven would have reduced schools' ability to deliver an outdoor education programme and fewer students would have been interested in the subject.

She said more than 3000 Year 11 students studied outdoor education and EONZ was concerned the government did not plan to offer the subject for that year level.

McDonald said more than 53,000 people signed a petition calling for outdoor education to remain a recognised Ministry-led senior subject.