The role of national statistics institutions in the use and understanding of official statistics in the compulsory education sector

Statistics New Zealand, like many national statistics institutions (NSIs), is charged with increasing the use and understanding of official statistics in the wider community. This seemingly insignificant outcome is driving radical changes in the way NSIs communicate their statistics to their audiences. One area where NSIs are increasingly working to communicate statistics is the compulsory education sector. Helping primary and secondary school students use and understand statistics is regarded as one of the best ways to promote the long- term use and understanding of official statistics. While there are many ways to build this statistical capability in young people, an emerging policy strand suggests that it is not realistic for NSIs such as Statistics New Zealand to embark on statistical education programmes of their own. Instead, it is argued that they should focus on three planks: encouraging agencies for education policy to place a high value on statistics education; influencing curriculum development (in statistics and other subjects) to include significant official statistics components; and providing targeted official statistics resources to support curricular components. This paper critically examines this approach to achieving the desired relationship between NSIs and the compulsory education sector, from a New Zealand perspective.