Schools need to ensure they retain focus on subjects like art and music so students don't become "faceless bureaucrats", a Northland principal warns.
Pressure to focus on reading, writing and maths under national standards had long been predicted by schools, said Tai Tokerau Principals' Association president Pat Newman.
His comments follow the release of the latest report from the Research, Analysis and Insight into National Standards (Rains) project, which analysed how six schools had fared with national standards.
Waikato University professor Martin Thrupp, who led the study, said worrying trends had popped up in schools since the standards for reading, writing and mathematics were implemented in 2010.
Schools were finding it tough to make time for subjects such as art, history and social studies, because of the pressure to focus on core national standards skills. Mr Newman said music, arts and social studies were crucial parts of learning.
"Reading and writing is great, but unless you know how to get on with people and live in society ... unless you actually know how to develop your soul with music and art, you become possibly a faceless bureaucrat."
In an effort to promote music, his school had at least 80 children playing ukulele.
"Everything we do in this school fits back to developing the whole child, we need to keep on developing the whole child - we need to give kids the ability to dream."
His school had undertaken its own analysis of student learning for about 14 years, looking at 80 different areas of progress.
In September, an Education Ministry-commissioned report found teachers' use of the standards last year lacked dependability, ranking children's reading, writing and maths correctly only about 60 per cent of the time. Professor Thrupp said there was a need for change in the policy to help students and teachers because national standards assessment was becoming too dominant in schools.
Education Minister Hekia Parata said national standards were a response to previous concerns with the education system.
"National standards doesn't narrow the curriculum at all, far from it, what it does is prompt the teaching of literacy and numeracy."
Parents also appreciated the system, she said.
"They want to know how well their child is doing more regularly." additional reporting Vaimoana Tapaleao