The government is reviewing the deletion of climate change from the subjects children will study at primary school and the first years of secondary, while claiming it was never really cut in the first place.

The topic was in draft Science and Social Sciences curriculums for students in Years 0-10 but was axed from the final versions published last week.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the topic was still in the curriculum even if it was not explicitly mentioned.

"Climate change already is in the curriculum," she said.

"For some reason the writers didn't use the word 'climate change' or it didn't end up in the final document so I've instructed the ministry to go back and just talk to the experts, climate change experts, to make sure we're actually using the term in the areas where we are talking about climate change, so they're going back and doing a review of that."

Stanford said climate change was included when she looked at the final version of the curriculums before they were published.

"When I read through the very final one, the day before it went out, I could see that climate change was included. It's just about putting the word back in," she said.

Stanford said she did not know why the term was deleted as she was not involved in writing the curriculum and it was not her decision.

She said the topic was in the draft senior secondary school curriculum.

'Not connected in a coherent way'

But University of Waikato education professor Chris Eames said it was not accurate to claim climate change was in the curriculums published last week even if the term was not explicitly used.

"Although various aspects that contribute to or are impacts of climate change are certainly present, they are not connected in a coherent way, and they are certainly not attributed to human activity," he said.

"This means that learning and teaching about climate change is likely to remain fragmented and not lead to student understanding about how we can address climate change, which is absolutely what is needed for them to learn so that when they can address it, they have the abilities to do so."

Eames said the ministry did not consult any of the climate education experts he knew and he wondered who advised it on the climate change content.

On Monday evening Prime Minister Christopher Luxon responded to a question about the place of climate change science in schools by saying the government had to focus first on maths, reading and attendance.

"The first thing is I've got to get kids to school. I've got to teach them to read and to do maths. And then we definitely want to have given the foundations to be able to engage in climate change, science, a whole bunch of other topics as well," he said.