New Zealand

Overview of Education System⁵

New Zealand’s education system, characterized by a high level of decentralization, has three levels: early childhood education, schooling, and tertiary education. Delivery of education is devolved from central government directly to educational institutions where governance and accountability are assigned to boards of trustees or councils with elected or appointed members. In the schooling sector, governance, administration, and management of individual state or state integrated schools are the responsibility of elected boards of trustees.^e Each board of trustees is composed of parent and community volunteers, the school principal, a staff representative, and, at secondary schools, a student representative. The board of trustees employs all school staff, manages school property, controls school finances, and sets the policies for school governance in accordance with the National Education Guidelines as defined by the Education Act of 1989.^f,6 Through the school principal and teaching staff, it also develops and implements the curriculum that best fits the community it serves while reflecting the national intentions.⁷ In 2014, the current government introduced its Investing in Educational Success policy with the aim of raising student achievement by promoting effective collaboration among education providers.^g Formally known as Communities of Learning | Kāhui Ako, these schools provided new leadership and teaching roles in and across schools. For example, a Community of Learning leader is responsible for providing leadership across the group of education providers and is a principal of one of the schools. Boards of trustees are responsible for making the decision about their schools joining or forming a Community of Learning, with the Minister of Education approving the formation. At the time PIRLS was administered in New Zealand in November 2015, there were 96 Communities of Learning.^h,8

Seven state sector or Crownⁱ agencies are involved in developing, implementing, and monitoring national education policies and quality assurance processes. Four of these agencies have a key role in the early childhood and schooling sectors: the Ministry of Education, the Education Review Office, the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.^j

• The Ministry of Education is the lead education agency, providing policy advice to the government on all aspects of the education system and managing the implementation of government policy. It develops and supports the implementation of curriculum and professional development programs and develops national education and administrative guidelines. It collects, analyzes, and disseminates education statistics and conducts or commissions research to monitor the education system’s overall effectiveness. It has responsibility for all education property and provides schools’ operational funding.^k
• The Education Review Office is responsible for evaluating and reporting on the quality of education, management, and governance provided by individual early childhood centers, kōhanga reo, kura, and schools. The reports from these evaluations provide assurance that schools are meeting their statutory obligations.
• The Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (formerly known as the New Zealand Teachers Council) is an autonomous professional and regulatory body for registered teachers who work in English and Māori medium early childhood education and schools. The Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand establishes and maintains standards for teacher registration, approves and monitors initial teacher education programs, and registers teachers. It also is the profession’s disciplinary body.
• The New Zealand Qualifications Authority oversees and coordinates all national qualifications, including academic, professional trade qualifications, certificates, and awards. It also manages the assessment and reporting systems for New Zealand’s national senior secondary school qualifications.

Structure of the Education System

Exhibit 1 shows the structure of the early childhood and schooling sectors in New Zealand. Early childhood education in New Zealand refers to the education and care of children as young as infants through school entry age.

Almost all early childhood education is delivered by private teacher or parent led providers, both of which receive large subsidies from the government.⁹ Services coordinated and led by qualified teachers include community kindergartens, education and care services, and home-based services. Parent led services are licensed (or certificated) and involve parents and family members/caregivers as the educators and caregivers of their children. Examples of these are kōhanga reo for children from birth until school age based on total immersion in te reo Māori , play centers (based on the philosophy of ideas of child initiated play and parents as first educators), and less formal services such as play groups.^l While early childhood education is not compulsory, most children attend a teacher or parent led early education service before starting primary school.^m,10

Exhibit 1: New Zealand’s Early Childhood Education and Schooling Sectors¹¹

Schooling in New Zealand spans 13 years from entry at Year 1 to Year 13, with attendance compulsory from ages 6 to 16. However, most children begin primary schooling on or soon after their fifth birthday.

Primary education spans eight years from entry at Year 1 to Year 8. Most children attend a full primary school until the end of Year 8 or a contributing primary school until Year 6, at which point they move to an intermediate school (Years 7 to 8) or a composite secondary school (Years 7 to 13). The vast majority of students in primary school progress to each year level automatically (i.e., social promotion), although in special circumstances including academic and/or social reasons, students may be promoted or held back a year. Most primary schools are coeducational.

Secondary education spans five years, beginning at Year 9, with most children about age 13. Most secondary school students attend the Year 9 to 13 or Year 7 to 13 secondary school that is closest to where they live.ⁿ Some schools, most often in rural locations, make provisions for students from Years 1 to 13. In recent years, middle (or junior secondary) schools and senior secondary schools have been established to make provisions for students in Years 7 to 10 and Years 11 to 13, respectively. New Zealand secondary schools are comprehensive in that they do not make a distinction between academic or vocational/technical programs. Single sex education is more prevalent in secondary schools than in primary schools, although most secondary school students are enrolled in coeducational schools.

Since 2013, Partnership Schools | Kura Hourua have been established to deliver education to the most disadvantaged students.^12,13 Partnership Schools, a type of charter school, are funded by the state on a per student basis. However, unlike regular state schools whose relationship with the Crown is based on regulation, these schools are accountable to the Crown through a binding, legally enforceable fixed term contract to meet specific, measurable educational performance goals. In 2015, just 0.1 percent of primary and secondary school students were enrolled in New Zealand’s nine Partnership Schools.^o,14

Private or independent schools are run by religious or philosophical organizations or by private individuals and may be coeducational or single sex. Fully registered independent schools receive partial funding from the central government. In 2015, about 4 percent of all primary and secondary school students were enrolled in independent schools, mostly at the secondary level.¹⁵

Māori Medium Education

Māori medium education in the school sector is where students are taught all or some of the curriculum subjects in the Māori language for at least 51 percent of the instructional time.^p Māori medium education where instruction is delivered at least 81 percent of the time, Māori Language Immersion Level 1, is provided in kura kaupapa Māori, kura ā iwi, kura motuhake, and wharekura.^q Bilingual schools also provide opportunities for learning in the Māori language with differing levels of immersion. There are also classes or units (rumaki or reorua) attached to English medium schools where at least 51 percent of the curriculum is taught in Māori. In 2015, just over 2 percent of primary and secondary students in New Zealand were enrolled in a Māori medium education program.^r In Year 5, nearly 9 percent of Māori students (a little more than 2 percent of Year 5 students) were in Māori Language Immersion Level 1settings.^s,16 The majority of Māori students (90 percent or about 23 percent of all Year 5 students) were learning mostly in English.^17,18 Most students in Māori medium education are learning in their second language, with English being their first.

Pasifika Medium Education

In Pasifika medium education, instruction is solely in a Pacific Islands language or with English as part of a bilingual learning program. The setting for both immersion units and bilingual classes mostly is English medium primary schools. In 2015, about 0.4 percent of primary and secondary students received some instruction in a Pacific Islands language, most often Samoan or Tongan.¹⁹

Special Education

Special education in New Zealand is an inclusive system designed to support early childhood services and schools to teach students who have physical or psychological disabilities, vision or hearing impairment, or communication or behavioral difficulties. Most students with high or very high learning (special) needs receive individualized funding, support, and specialist teaching to enable them to attend their local schools. There is provision for students who are unable to be accommodated within the regular schooling system to be educated in day or residential special schools.^20,21 After a consultation period during 2015, a new model for working and delivering services for children with learning needs is being developed with a pilot starting in 2017.²²