Budget 2023 Education Highlights

Vote Education additional operating investment and New Tertiary Education Funding.

Vote Education

Budget 2023 provides additional operating investment of $3.3 billion and capital investment of $1.1 billion over five years for Vote Education, which includes:

  • $1.2 billion to extend the 20 Hours Early Childhood Education (ECE) subsidy that is currently available for three to five-year-olds to two-year-olds. This is intended to reduce the cost of ECE for parents by reducing ECE service fees. This will help parents manage their day-to-day living costs and provide scope for additional uptake of ECE for parents where cost has been a barrier to participation.
  • Significant funding for education infrastructure, including:
    • $455.39 million to support continued expansion of the school property portfolio by delivering roll growth classrooms and new schools in accordance with the National Education Growth Plan.
    • $198.65 million for the Christchurch Schools' Rebuild Programme following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. 33 school projects require this additional capital investment.
    • $134.38 million for remediation projects, site acquisitions and roll growth classrooms for kura delivering Māori Medium Education (MME). Maintenance funding is also provided to Puna Reo and Kōhanga Reo early childhood centres.
    • $147 million for modifications in schools to provide access for all, including automatic doors, lifts, fencing, hoists, and bathroom modifications over a period of two years. This is in response to increased demand for such modifications (increase of 190 percent from 2016 to 2021).
  • $323 million to continue the school lunches programme. Ensuring children who experience the greatest socioeconomic barriers to education are fed is a top priority. Being hungry is a major impediment to learning. So funding has been provided to continue the Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunch Programme. 
  • $322 million for a third tranche of funding to deliver pay parity for certificated teachers in education and care services. It provides funding to close the pay gap between certificated teachers in education and care services and their counterparts in kindergartens. This initiative also provides funding for an allowance for teachers who work in Māori or Pacific based immersion services.
  • $260.04 million cost adjustment for early childhood education services and a sustainability grant for Playcentre Aotearoa. This provides funding for an increase of 5.3 percent to a mix of full and partial early learning subsidy rates. This will aid funded early learning services to manage the increasing costs of provision and maintain quality and affordable early learning for children, parents, and whānau. It also provides a one-off grant to support the sustainability of Playcentre Aotearoa.
  • $233.93 million cost adjustment for school’s operational grants. This provides for an increase of 3.5 percent in funding for schools to employ ‘non-teaching’ staff and meet inflationary pressures to purchase supplies, utilities and other essentials required to operate. This also includes additional funding to extend the donations scheme to newly eligible schools in 2024.
  • $41.37 million additional funding for Alternative Education. This increases the per place rate to $16,536 and will support over 2,000 Years 9 -13 ākonga who are at risk of or are disengaged from education to reengage. It also funds $3.5 million annually for regional implementation of intensive support options for younger cohorts, and ongoing funding of Te Tupu Managed Moves.
  • $40.41 million for specialised Learning Support Coordination and facilities in schools and kura providing Kaupapa Māori and Māori medium education. It provides resourcing for Māori-led design and delivery of solutions to strengthen the capacity and capability of these schools and kura to plan and coordinate responses to the learning support needs of ākonga in partnership with whānau.
  • $39.89 million to improve educational outcomes for ākonga Māori and their whānau. The Ministry will work with partners to improve outcomes around attendance, ending streaming, and nurturing language, culture, and identity through kapahaka. Māori Education Peak Bodies will be supported to lead and partner with the Ministry on programmes with aligned aspirations for tamariki and rangatahi. There is also increased funding for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programmes for ākonga Māori.
  • $39.10 million funding to maintain cybersecurity and managed digital services to kura and schools to better protect the education sector against rapidly escalating cyber-attacks and privacy breaches. This delivers the next phase of the Cybersecurity and Managed IT Services initiative that was funded through Budget 2022.
  • $23.64 million to extend funding for critical teacher supply initiatives that boost Initial Teacher Education enrolment, incentivise overseas teachers to move to New Zealand, assist former teachers to return to the profession and help match graduates and returning teachers to long-term positions.
  • $9.92 million to expand the Critical Local Histories programme, which involves working with local iwi and hapū to support the development of culturally relevant history curricular. High levels of interest from iwi and schools in this programme have led to a need for expansion and additional funding. This funding will allow the Crown to work with iwi over the next five years.  

Vote Tertiary Education

Budget 2023 provides additional operating including:

  • $521.02 million for tertiary tuition and training subsidies, including:
    • a 5 percent increase to support tertiary tuition and training providers to manage increases in delivery costs and help maintain the quality and accessibility of tertiary education and training.
    • a 15 percent targeted funding rate increase to recognise the particular cost pressures facing the delivery of te reo Māori and other courses that promote the learning of mātauranga Māori, by providing for targeted delivery at level 3 and above.   
  • $180.90 million for tertiary education and training providers to help meet the increased level of enrolment demand forecast between 2023 and 31 December 2025.
  • $220.00 million to provide Te Pūkenga with an interest-free Crown loan of up to $220 million to support it to implement an IT transformation programme. The programme will enable Te Pūkenga to shift from operating more than twenty largely unconnected information systems to integrated IT infrastructure. 

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