Education Minister Erica Stanford has called in some help from international experts in a bid to get the nation's education stats on the up.

Former UK Minister of Schools, Sir Nick Gibb, led similar charges a decade ago - and the UK went from the bottom of OECD ranking to 4th in the world for reading and 11th for maths.

He's consulting with Erica Stanford - and he's revealed what New Zealand can learn from its international counterparts.

"We looked to East Asia to see how maths was taught - the people at the top of the tables - and we basically copied and learned from those countries and we brought that method into England. That's why we have risen in terms of reading and in terms of maths as well."

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