National's leader Christopher Luxon ditched Parliament for the playground this week, touring schools to sell his party's solution to declining student performance with a back-to-basics focus on literacy and numeracy.

"We're going to do maths, reading, writing and science and prioritise those things over everything else" - Christopher Luxon

National's leader Christopher Luxon ditched Parliament for the playground this week, touring schools to sell his party's solution to declining student performance with a back-to-basics focus on literacy and numeracy.

Teacher unions have criticised the plan, but the party was unlikely to ever get their backing - instead targeting concerned parents and his political opponent, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.

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With Parliament in recess, National and Labour's leaders took this week to brush up on their campaigning skills with a jaunt back to the classroom.

Labour's Chris Hipkins took a trip down memory lane with a visit to his old primary school on Wednesday, where he was grilled by kids eager to find out what naughtiness got him sent to the principal's office all those years ago.

National's Christopher Luxon managed to stop in at four schools throughout the week, but it was him asking the questions - quizzing children on their future aspirations.

He talked a lot about the decline in New Zealand students' academic achievement - a trend which has frustrated teachers, parents, children and decision-makers alike - and which could put those aspirations at risk.

Read more:

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RNZ's education correspondent John Gerritsen says there are three main measures of the school system's level of achievement - and for all three, the trends are indeed bad.

As an example, the OECD-based PISA tests 15-year-olds on maths, science, and reading every three years and measures their results against about 79 other countries…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details