Half of Kiwi adults flunk general knowledge test

By: Simon Collins

Barely half of New Zealand adults know that it takes 365 days for the Earth to go around the sun.

Fewer than half can name the seven continents, or work out how far a car travels at a constant speed in a given time.

Only 32 percent know that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840.

The results, from a poll of 1000 New Zealanders aged 18 and over for the NZ Initiative, has exposed what the business think tank calls "serious gaps in public knowledge".

It blames New Zealand's flexible curriculum which allows each school to design its own local curriculum, and calls for a more structured education system to ensure that all New Zealanders acquire "a core of knowledge".

Try the quiz and see how many you get right...

The poll, conducted by landline and cellphone by Curia Market Research, asked 13 questions covering maths, science, history, geography and spelling.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission