What the investment covers#

The funding, announced by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Minister of Education Erica Stanford will be used over 4 years in the following areas.

Maths and pāngarau#

An investment of $29.7m that includes:

• the establishment and initial trial of maths and pāngarau hubs
• hands-on maths and pāngarau equipment for every Years 0 to 8 classroom
• a new times table and division check
• an additional 36 full-time equivalent teachers for targeted maths and pāngarau support
• the expansion of the maths and pāngarau acceleration programme, to include Years 9 to 10.

Writing#

An investment of $38.7m that includes: 

• writing and tuhituhi workbooks for Years 4 to 5 students
• implementing a digital writing tool for students in Years 6 to 8 to build writing skills and fluency.

Structured literacy#

An investment of $19.4m that includes:

• structured literacy and te reo matatini decodables for older readers
• an End of Year 2 Literacy | Te Reo Matatini Check
• an Accelerated Literacy | Te Reo Matatini Programme
• a new Effective Literacy | Te Reo Matatini Teaching Programme for Years 0 to 10 to embed effective literacy practices aligned to the new curriculum.

Professional learning and development#

An investment of $43.5 million to provide professional learning and development for smarter data use by school and kura leaders, and high-impact explicit teaching practices that deepen students’ learning.

Foundational Learning Action Plan #

In 2025 and 2026 we released individual action plans for maths (Make it Count) and writing (Make it Write). These earlier action plans are being combined – along with actions to support reading – into a single Foundational Learning Action Plan. 

Foundational Learning Action Plan

Curriculum insights and progress study#

As part of this announcement, the latest Curriculum Insights Report has been made available today. This report gives us the strongest national picture yet of how students in English-medium settings are progressing in reading, writing, and mathematics.

The results show that student achievement is largely stable, with early upward shifts in maths and writing.  

We look forward to releasing Te Tīrewa Mātai results later this year, which will further inform our approach across pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau.

More information#

Read the Budget 2026 factsheet.