What is the government funding? Pre-budget education investment roundup

Education initiatives being funded by the government in this year’s budget include attendance services, a new financial literacy curriculum and maths tests. Other announcements which affect the education sector include the pay equity overhaul and the disestablishment of Kāhui Ako.  

These announcements have been made (or, in the case of Kāhui Ako, leaked) ahead of the 2025 budget, which will be delivered by Nicola Willis on Thursday. Of the 13 prebudget announcements made so far, five will affect the education sector, reflecting education as one of the Government’s election priorities.  

Read the latest print edition of School News online HERE.

Below, we round up the education announcements made so far.  

Maths teachers and tests  

Over a period of four years, $100 million will be ringfenced for “expert maths teachers” and maths tests to be rolled out in primary and intermediate schools.  

The announcement was made by Education Minister Erica Stanford last Monday 12 May.  

Of the $100 million:  

• $56 million will pay for 143 full time equivalent (FTE) maths intervention teachers in primary schools.  

• $40 million will go to small-group maths tutoring for up to 34,000 intermediate students per year. 

• $4 million will go to developing and introducing a new “Maths Check”. 

“From next year, every child will have their maths ability checked in their first two years of schooling. The check will identify students who would benefit from additional support, early on in their schooling journey,” said Ms Stanford.   

“Proficiency in maths is such an important foundation of success in life. Every child deserves the opportunity to be confident and capable in maths so they can reach their potential. 

“The first two years of school are critical for developing foundational maths skills. Support in that time can transform a child’s learning journey. We’ve already successfully introduced this in literacy through the Phonics Check,” she said. 

Professional development will be available to teachers for the new Maths Check. 

This “Maths Check” approach mirrors the structured literacy initiatives rolled out this year. Some educators, such as Dr Sarah Aiono of the Aotearoa Educators Collective have criticised this approach, pointing out that structured literacy is underpinned by evidence of how children learn to read, whereas applying similar approaches to maths has not been tested.  

“No clear evidence has been provided to show that this structured intervention approach in maths will have the intended impact, especially when scaled up nationally,” wrote Dr Aiono in a recent blogpost. 

The small group maths tutoring initiative builds on a pilot programme aimed at lifting achievement for intermediate-aged students, who are performing below expected curriculum levels. 

The pilot was described by Ms Stanford as “highly successful”, and she said intervention at intermediate ensured high-school success for those students.  

“Early indications from the trial show that it has been hugely successful at raising achievement over a very short period of time,” said Ms Stanford.  

Cambridge Middle School was involved in the 12-week intermediate maths tutoring pilot, and Deputy Principal Tagget Christopherson described it as “amazing”.  

“From a student voice perspective, engaging kids to feel confident and to be happy and willing to join mathematics is a huge goal,” said Ms Christopherson.  

Students who took part described the small group sessions as “fun” and said they were more likely to participate in a small group setting.  

Ms Christopherson said it was a “quality investment”, however maths was hard to staff.  

“I just don’t know what they’ll do to make this accessible.” 

Dr Lisa Darragh, a maths researcher from Auckland University agreed that the government may find it hard to source teachers for the scheme.  

“If they’re expert maths teachers, they have jobs already,” said Dr Darragh.  

“Where are they going to get them from? And what are they going to take them from? 

“Are they going to be taken from the classroom, where they’re doing great work with their own classes?” 

Dr Darragh said there was a risk that applying maths interventions for specific children would label them as having a maths problem, and said it was better to focus on interventions inside a classroom by upskilling teachers. However, she welcomed the funding as there had not been a boost for maths education in 20 years.  

In response to questions about staffing concerns, Ms Stanford said that she expects teachers will come back from maternity leave or retirement, or that existing teachers will be released to do the necessary work for these maths interventions.  

Pauline Cleaver, acting curriculum leader for the Ministry of Education said they were developing a model for determining how the 143 FTE maths teachers would be allocated. This would be done by assessing primary schools with the greatest need.  

“The goal is to target additional teaching resource to support learners who are not currently meeting curriculum expectation, and to maximise the impact of the initiative,” said Ms Cleaver. 

Teachers would be required to be qualified and registered. They would receive up to four-days training and ongoing online support to deliver the maths programme.  

Financial literacy curriculum  

As part of the refreshed social studies curriculum, financial education will become available from Years One to 10 in 2026, and mandatory in 2027.  

The curriculum will cover basics like needs vs wants, having a bank account and spending vs saving for younger students.  

Older students will tackle more complex subjects like budgeting, investment, interest, taxes and insurance. These will be taught alongside the financial maths found in the refreshed maths curriculum.  

The curriculum will be supported by tools and resources developed by external partner organisations like charitable trusts and banks. The Retirement Commission will work in partnership with the Ministry of Education and these external organisations to ensure resources and support is aligned with the curriculum. A “resource map” will eventually be extended to senior students.  

Providers working with the Retirement Commission include Sorted in Schools, Banqer, MoneyTime, Life Education, Young Enterprise Trust, Savvy, Westpac, ASB, Kiwibank, and BNZ. 

The curriculum was announced by Education Minister Erica Stanford, Finance Minister Nicola Willis, and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson at the end of April. Mr Simpson is the minister in charge of the Retirement Commission.  

“I absolutely believe that strengthening financial education is crucial to our Government’s focus on economic growth. We are all consumers, and financial literacy can set young Kiwis up to be savvy consumers – whether it’s knowing how to invest wisely, choose the best loan at a bank, or even identify a scam,” said Mr Simpson.  

Ms Willis added “some people end school without the basic financial literacy to make good financial decisions for them and their family, and that can result in people ending up in really difficult levels of debt.”  

“Embedding essential skills into the curriculum will ensure our young people are better prepared to make informed financial decisions in a complex financial world. This will positively impact their lives and the broader economy,” said Ms Stanford. 

Ms Stanford added that parents “have long called for financial education”.  

A recently released report from the Financial Education and Research Centre at Massey University highlighted the need for financial education at school. It found that most parents want their children to learn about finances from an early age, and noted that financial education in New Zealand should account for cultural differences.  

Although some educators were positive about the announcement, there was some apprehension about having to reduce time spent on other subjects.  

Joe Bibby, a teacher from Tawa College, said the new curriculum was a good idea, but noted that “any time you do more of one thing you have to do less of something else… we’ll have to see what’s going to be reduced to make space for this.” 

Heidi Hayward, a spokesperson for the Principals Federation, said schools needed more information as there were a lot of changes coming very quickly.  

Ms Stanford said that because financial literacy was spread through the curriculum in social sciences and maths, teachers shouldn’t struggle to find extra time.  

“A small amount in every year in each thing built all the way through to Year 10 in a compulsory way is plenty.”  

Both National and Labour campaigned on introducing financial education at the last general election. The draft of the social sciences learning area will be available for feedback in Term Four this year, with a version available to schools for use in 2026. 

Revamped attendance service  

Last Wednesday, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced $140 million will be allocated to school attendance over the next four years.  

Of this funding, $123 million will go toward establishing a new attendance service, and $17 million will support frontline services through the creation of a new case management system, and better monitoring of both data and attendance service contracts.  

The country would be divided into around 80 regions to support this approach, acknowledging that some regions need more funding than others.  

The new attendance model will action three recommendations from a 2024 ERO report into truancy.  

• Having effective targeted supports in place to address chronic absence  

• • Including clearer roles and responsibilities for attendance services, families, schools and other agencies. 

• Increasing the focus on retaining students on their return  

• • Including a plan to support students to reintegrate, be safe and catch up. 

• Putting in place an efficient and effective model 

• • By centralising functions like information-sharing between agencies and local actions like ensuring schools have adequate resources and support.  

The remaining recommendation, “strengthening how we prevent students becoming chronically absent” will be addressed by the STAR model, which will be in place by next year.  

Mr Seymour said schools with high numbers of chronic absence would be able to apply to fund an in-school service. Transition to this new model will happen from the end of this year, with services fully operational from early 2026.  

“Attending school is the first step towards achieving positive educational outcomes. Positive educational outcomes lead to better health, higher incomes, better job stability and greater participation within communities. These are opportunities that every student deserves,” said Mr Seymour.  

Mr Seymour told media that there had been good improvement in attendance with a five percent increase term to term compared to last year.  

The announcement comes after cuts to six attendance services were confirmed in March. Four attendance service providers from Nelson / Marlborough / West Coast and two from Otago / Southland. Attendance officer positions were also disestablished across the nation.  

At the time, principals in the affected regions were disappointed in the news. Nelson Intermediate Principal Di Webb told The Press that officers had “just started to make real progress” when the news broke.  

Pay equity 

Other prebudget announcements that will affect the sector include pay equity payment overhauls and the loss of Kāhui Ako.  

The Pay Equity Amendment Bill passed earlier this month, passing through all stages of parliament under urgency, in 36 hours. The legislation increases the burden of proof for showing work has been historically undervalued, making it more difficult for women in female dominated industries to make a claim under the Equal Pay Amendment Act, which passed in 2020 with unanimous support.  

The original legislation mandated that work with similar levels of skill, responsibility and effort should have similar pay, regardless of the workforce’s gender makeup. 

Thirty-three current claims going through the process have now been halted. These include pay equity claims brought by NZEI Te Riu Roa for teacher aides, and the largest ever pay equity claim for teachers, brought to court in 2020.  

NZEI Te Riu Roa member and primary school teacher Kalesha Segatta said “We need teachers to feel they are valued and that they are not punished for working in a sector with a high proportion of women workers. This decision has done the opposite.”  

Labour’s education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said the announcement was “asking teachers, who are mostly women, to do more while picking their pockets.”  

Prime said Stanford needed to “front up and explain why she believes women, particularly those who are teachers, should be paid less than men. We are all waiting to hear it.” 

Kāhui Ako 

Around the same time, leaks of Education Ministry documents showed the Government will defund Kāhui Ako and redirect these funds for learning support.  

“The release of Kāhui Ako funding is critical to meeting the Budget 2025 commitments for Learning Support,” said the document.  

Response from the education sector has been mixed, with some supporting the decision, while others have called it “ill-considered.”  

Patrick Walsh, Headmaster of Sacred Heart College in Auckland told RNZ that it was a “backward step for education in New Zealand. 

“When you look at high-achieving countries such as Singapore and Sweden, they have every similar models. What we don’t want to go back to is the Tomorrow’s Schools regime in its purest form, which is schools, isolated islands, competing against each other, not sharing best practice and winner and loser schools.”  

Meanwhile Kyle Brewerton, then Auckland Primary Principals Association head, said most of their members were in favour of disbanding the scheme.  

“The vast majority see that the money would… be far better spent elsewhere.”  

Mr Brewerton said that principals felt the funding was inflexible, and Secondary Principals Association president Vaughan Couillault agreed.  

Other education leaders said the lack of consultation and evaluation of the scheme was an issue.  

Leon Van’t Veen, Principal of Tūtira Ashgrove School told RNZ that the decision is “really disappointing, and I personally feel gutted, because I feel that all the mahi that’s gone in to date can just be disestablished at the snap of fingers. 

“It’s just a real shame that this is all being done to us, not with us.”  

Labour education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said the leaked documents were indicative of discontent.  

“When information like this is shared, which is Budget-sensitive, I think it does show that there is concern and disillusionment around what the minister is doing, and the lack of process in terms of what the minister is doing. 

“The key issue here is that it is really unclear what the government is doing, why they are doing it and what their process is, and what I am hearing from teachers is that they are confused. There has been, to my knowledge, no consultation with schools around this, yet it is going to majorly impact schools and many roles.” 

Education Minister Erica Stanford told RNZ in April that she was not in a position to comment on the leaked documents.  

“I’m not going to comment about things that have not been decided through the Budget process yet and will be announced in due course and I am obviously disappointed that there has been a leak of documents, but we’re not commenting any further on anything because they’re all Budget dependent,” said Ms Stanford.