19 Jul 2025

The end of open plan classrooms

From Saturday Morning, 7:12 am on 19 July 2025

This week education has been in the spotlight with news the government will no longer build big, barn yard style open plan classrooms. Instead, Education Minister Erica Stanford said after years of different government flip-flops - now it will only build single-cell classrooms. 

The announcement came in the same week as results from this year's NCEA numeracy and literacy tests.

The results showed that pass rates improved overall but that most teenagers in Northland and South Auckland failed. 

Judy Bruce, AUT's Senior Lecturer in Education talks to Susie Ferguson about why flexibility is key when it comes to good educational outcomes.  

No caption

Photo: 123RF