Annual Report 2022
The Annual Report 2022 outlines the Ministry’s key achievements over the past year and details progress against long term outcomes and objectives. It includes non-financial performance information and the Ministry’s financial statements.
- A copy of the full report is available for download, along with the Vote Education Section 19B report in Relation to Non-Departmental appropriations for the year ended 30 June 2022.
Annual Report 2022 and Section 19B report
Introduction from the Secretary for Education
Throughout the past year, we have continued to provide day-to-day support for the sector responding to COVID-19 in our communities, primarily in Tāmaki Makaurau, Te Tai Tokerau and Waikato before Christmas, and then across the nation with the Omicron variant. We:
- provided resources and enable decision-making at a local level so educators could give targeted support for learners at risk of disengagement with COVID-19
- expanded wellbeing and mental health supports to more tertiary institutions and provided one-off funding to enable additional counselling services to schools for the most vulnerable
- provided advice around vaccine mandates and ensured early learning services, schools and kura were prepared for Omicron, with access to masks and rapid antigen tests where needed
- provided schools with CO2 monitors to help them identify spaces where maintaining good ventilation was a challenge and bought more than 8,000 air cleaners to help improve the air quality in these areas.
We acknowledge the amazing work across the sector, responding to these new challenges and additional pressures with the closure of places of learning and the ongoing effects of student and staff sickness.
We are continuing to address a number of challenges that pre-date COVID-19, but have been exacerbated by it.
Regular attendance at school continues to be affected by the disruptions of COVID-19. We supported a Select Committee Review and the development of an Attendance and Engagement Strategy which was announced in June 2022. The Strategy sets clear expectations for all of us – parents, teachers, government agencies, students and communities. The Strategy supports local solutions by local schools, kura and communities.
We know that our maths and literacy outcomes need to improve. Changes to strengthen NCEA are supporting this by providing clarity on what we mean by foundational literacy, numeracy, te reo matatini me te pāngarau. We are investing in our secondary schools and kura to prepare for these changes.
Two new strategies (Hei Raukura mō te Mokopuna Action Plan for Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau and the draft Literacy & Communication and Maths Strategy) were released in March 2022. These strategies are guiding the development of action plans to improve outcomes for young people in te reo matatini and pāngarau maths, literacy, communication, across the whole learning pathway. This will include support for teachers to have confidence teaching in these areas and tailored assessment, so parents know how their child is going and where support is needed.
We released the detailed design of the new unified funding system for vocational education to incentivise and support providers to meet the needs of all ākonga, including rebalancing the funding for work-based and provider-based learning.
Creating an environment that responds to identity, language and culture is essential to engage all ākonga in learning. In 2022/23, we:
- launched Te Takanga o Te Wā and Aotearoa New Zealand's histories curriculum content for delivery in 2023, so our ākonga can learn about our past and develop a shared understanding of the present and our future
- provided education resources to understand and celebrate Matariki, our first uniquely te ao Māori public holiday, providing a gateway into mātauranga Māori and tikanga Māori. Some of these resources also acknowledged Puanga and its importance at this time of year for some iwi
- started to develop a long-term policy on Pacific bilingual and immersion education, while consulting on the Pacific Languages Strategy
- supported over 2,500 deaf and hard of hearing ākonga through a range of learning supports including immersion hubs, New Zealand Sign Language at school, Resource Teachers Deaf, and NZSL provisions in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.
In April 2022, Te Pae Roa, the independent Māori Education Oversight Group, delivered their initial report, The Future of Kaupapa Māori and Māori medium education, following their first round of engagement with Māori. The report provided initial advice about the possible direction of a Māori-medium and kaupapa Māori pathways work programme.
I began a redesign of the Ministry with the appointment of a new leadership team in October 2021, creating Te Mahau, a separately branded business unit within Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | the Ministry of Education.
The ongoing development of Te Mahau will give effect to the Government’s decision, in response to the Independent Taskforce on Tomorrow’s Schools, to substantially rebalance the Ministry of Education towards local provision of integrated and responsive support to early learning and school teachers, leaders and boards, to help them support learners, whānau and their communities.
This change involves shifts in how all parts of the organisation work – taking action to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, giving priority to regional and local voices, improving our feedback loops and information flows, and delivering more responsive, accessible and integrated services and support.
Thank you for the great work and support Ministry staff have provided throughout the year, while dealing with the impact of COVID-19 and unexpected events, like our move out of Mātauranga House. I am proud of what has been achieved and the steps we have already made to create a stronger, more inter-connected organisation that can work with the sector to achieve better results, especially for those who have not been served well by our system.
He waka eke noa
Iona Holsted
Te Tumu Whakarae mō te Mātauranga | Secretary for Education
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