New Zealand’s secondary teachers’ union is developing new guidance for educators following reports of increasing Holocaust denial, antisemitism and other forms of extremist behaviour in classrooms.
The Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) says it has commissioned work to develop resources for teachers after members reported encountering a growing range of extremist views among students, including neo-Nazi symbolism, Holocaust denial, antisemitism, racism and misogyny.
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie, himself a history and social studies teacher, told Radio New Zealand that Holocaust denial had become an issue in his own classroom.
“I’ve had students deny the Holocaust in class when we’re talking about it”. He said students had written essays expressing extremist views and that such incidents were “increasingly becoming more and more common.”
The union says teachers need better tools to respond to students who are engaging with extremist material online, arguing that schools should not be expected to deal with the problem without specialist support.
Abercrombie attributed much of the phenomenon to social media recommendation algorithms, which can expose young people to increasingly extreme content.
The Ministry of Education said it recognised concerns raised by teachers and pointed to the refreshed curriculum, which includes resources intended to help students identify misinformation and extremist content. It also highlighted partnerships with organisations including Netsafe, Network for Learning and Bullying-Free NZ.
For New Zealand’s Jewish community, reports of Holocaust denial in classrooms are particularly troubling. Holocaust denial is widely recognised by organisations including the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance as a form of antisemitism because it rejects or grossly distorts the historical reality of the Nazi genocide.
The issue has also been recognised by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, which has received government funding through the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund to develop resources helping teachers and students identify and respond to antisemitic behaviour and hate speech in schools.
The report also comes amid broader international concern about rising antisemitism following the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza. Jewish communities in a number of countries, including Australia and New Zealand, have reported increased incidents of antisemitic abuse and intimidation during that period.
While the PPTA’s concerns extend beyond antisemitism to include misogyny, racism and other forms of online radicalisation, the union’s acknowledgement that teachers are encountering Holocaust denial in New Zealand classrooms marks a significant public recognition of an issue that has received relatively little national attention.
The RNZ report relied primarily on teachers’ experiences rather than nationwide survey data, making it difficult to determine how widespread such incidents have become. Nevertheless, the decision by the country’s largest secondary teachers’ organisation to prepare formal guidance suggests schools increasingly regard extremist rhetoric — including Holocaust denial — as an issue requiring a coordinated educational response.