Kia ora koutou
Today’s bulletin provides a high-level summary of the investment in education that was announced yesterday as part of Budget 2025.
Budget 2025 invests $2.5 billion in Education over 4 years, including the biggest funding boost to learning support in a generation.
It uses a multi-tiered, systematic approach to provide supports for learners based on universal, targeted, and highest needs.
This includes expansion of the Early Intervention Service to the end of Year 1, Learning Support Coordinators for all Year 1 to 8 schools that don’t already have access to one, a substantial increase to teacher aide hours for schools, an overhaul of the funding model of the Ongoing Resource Scheme that provides support for students with the highest level of need, and increasing the amount of specialist support.
This is supported by further significant Budget 2025 investments in curriculum and assessment, Māori education, the workforce, and school property. Budget 2025 also includes decisions to reprioritise funding into areas that will have the greatest impact on student outcomes.
Given the significant and ongoing investments in structured literacy and Rangaranga Reo ā-Tā already made through both Budget 24 ($67 million), and built on through Budget 2025, the Minister of Education needed to make decisions to ensure the right mix of roles and services are available to support this investment. A decision has been made to reinvest funding from Resource Teachers of Literacy to deliver in-school supports to accelerate student progress, and learning support interventions.
A decision has also been made to reinvest the funding from Resource Teachers Māori into the Māori Education Action Plan, which is focused on growing the availability of support for Māori language use and teaching across the education system and building a world-class curriculum.
These decisions are not about the contribution and capability of those involved in providing these services, but about delivering support and expertise efficiently and equitably. Opportunities will be available to Resource Teachers Literacy and Resource Teachers Māori whose roles are being disestablished, and there is time to consider these options.
A decision has also been made to reinvest funding from disestablishment of the Kāhui Ako Communities of Learning programme. Kāhui Ako roles will be formally disestablished with effect from 28 January 2026. School boards will work through the impact of the changes for Kāhui Ako leaders and teachers that they employ. The New Zealand School Boards Association will provide support to boards. We’ll provide more information in our regular bulletins to support you and your school and kura communities, as planning and implementation progresses.
To read about this year’s Budget investment visit:
Ngā mihi
Ellen
Budget 2025 investment#
Below is the high-level detail of Budget 2025 investment:
Universal needs – Delivering foundational support to benefit all learners#
$192.5 million to fund an additional 650 FTTE so all Year 0 to 8 schools have access to a Learning Support Coordinator.
$85.6 million for a new and improved assessment tool for Year 3 to 10 teachers to provide consistent, quality assessments to measure progress, determine next steps, and support reporting to parents.
$39.9 million for new science and pūtaiao kits for Year 0 to 8 schools to support delivery of the new science curriculum and get students engaged in science.
$12.4 million for delivering the ENRICH (Enhancing Rich Interactions) programme to 525 early learning services to improve children’s oral language and literacy skills, and provide resources for ECE teachers in all settings.
$8.3 million for 12 more specialist secondary curriculum advisors to support delivery of the refreshed curriculum.
$4.1 million to introduce a maths check at Year 2 to track progress and identify students who need support, and to inform future investment.
$3.0 million to increase capability of teacher aides to support the social, emotional, wellbeing, behavioural, and neurodiverse needs of learners.
Targeted needs – Delivering more targeted support for learners with additional needs#
$266.0 million to investment in the Early Intervention Service (EIS) to:
- expand the service to the end of Year 1 to support around 4,000 children with additional needs
- reduce existing EIS waitlists
- increase specialist support provided to the more than 7,100 children currently in EIS
- provide an additional 900,000 teacher aide hours per year, from 2028, to support young learners in EIS.
$42.9 million for expanding behaviour and communications services with an extra 78.5 FTE speech language therapists, 6.2 FTE psychologists plus more teacher aide time to support 2,480 more learners with communication and behaviour needs.
$56.1 million for introducing tier 2 targeted maths intervention teachers for Year 0 to 6 with 143 new FTTE across the country.
$39.8 million for the maths and pāngarau tutoring for up to 34,000 Year 7 to 8 students each year to accelerate achievement for those who need extra support in mathematics.
$29.7 million to expand structured literacy tier 2 targeted intervention approaches to Year 6.
$6.7 million for homework and tutoring services for Year 9 to 10 students in schools with 50% or more Pacific learners supported to gain literacy and numeracy co-requisites, and achieve across NCEA.
Highest needs – Delivering specific support to individual learners with the highest and most complex needs#
$122.5 million to overhaul the funding model of the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme so that every verified child receives the support they need and a funding increase to support 1,700 more learners.
$7.3 million to add 45 more spaces to Te Kahu Tōi | Intensive Wraparound Service for learners with the very highest and most complex needs to receive total wrap around support.
$90.0 million for 25 new learning support classrooms and up to 365 property modifications to make schools more accessible.
Investing in school property to meet growth and continue building safe and warm classrooms#
$463.8 million for new schools and classrooms for over 8,000 students.
$100.0 million for maintaining and upgrading school property.
Investing in the success of ākonga in Kaupapa Māori, Māori medium, and English-medium education settings#
$50.0 million for 50 new classrooms in the Kura Kaupapa and Māori-medium schooling network.
$14.7 million for te reo Māori and tikanga training for all teachers.
$10.0 million for a Virtual Learning Network to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects online in Māori Medium and Kaupapa Māori Education.
$4.8 million for seven new curriculum advisors to support teachers in Kaupapa Māori and Māori Medium Education.
$4.5 million for new curriculum resources in te reo Matatini (literacy) and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) for Wharekura (secondary school).
$4.1 million to support data capability for 450+ Kōhanga Reo.
$2.1 million for a new Māori studies subject in the New Zealand Curriculum.
Investing in the education workforce to ensure quality teaching and leadership#
$20.0 million to attract and grow the supply of teachers.
$18.9 million to double the capacity of the Leadership Advisory Service for schools and principals from 16 to 32 leadership advisors.
$13.4 million for 530 additional places on the School Onsite Training Programme, building on the significant Budget 2024 investment, resulting in 1,860 funded places by 2028.
$11.6 million to invest in the future of school leadership through an Aspiring Principal Programme and in-service principal supports.
Increased funding for the School Operations Grant#
$121.7 million for a 1.5% increase to the School Operations Grant.
Additional investment to boost attendance#
$140.0 million for a new attendance service and to support and strengthen frontline attendance services.
