Key changes for schools#

• Changes to focus school boards on raising educational achievement by making this a board’s highest priority objective and introducing new supporting objectives on student attendance and assessment.
• Changes also remove an explicit obligation on school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. To meet the new paramount objective of educational achievement, a school board will be required to make sure it:
  • seeks to achieve equitable outcomes for Māori students
  • takes all reasonable steps to provide for students to be taught, and to learn, in te reo Māori on request of their parents and immediate caregivers, and
  • takes reasonable steps to make sure the policies and practices for the school reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity.
• Schools must have a plan in place to help manage and improve student attendance. Most schools need to have this ready by late January 2026, while distance schools have until July 2026.
• Schools now need to give 7 days’ notice before a strike, instead of 3. This gives families more time to plan.
• School boards will not need to create a new long-term strategic plan in 2026. Instead, they’ll focus on:
  • preparing their annual plan for 2026
  • reporting on their progress for the 2025 school year.

Key changes for universities#

Universities will now be required to:

• create a statement on freedom of expression
• set up a complaints process for academic freedom and free speech
• report on these in their annual reports.