This includes implementing a national curriculum grounded in the science of learning, providing quality teaching resources and guidance, and strengthening capability through ongoing professional learning and development – ensuring every learner has the opportunity to succeed.

The Government is focused on lifting achievement and ‘Teaching the Basics Brilliantly’, by introducing a clear curriculum, consistent ways of teaching, and more effective ways of monitoring student progression and achievement.

The Budget 2025 investment builds on the work already undertaken to raise achievement for all learners and will further support both teachers and students throughout the pathway, from early childhood education through to secondary school.

New maths and pāngarau initiatives are designed to help teachers identify learners who need additional support early on and to provide targeted interventions that help those learners meet curriculum expectations. This aligns with support already established for literacy learning.

Resources for teaching and learning is increasing, and assessment tools are being developed for both early childhood education and schooling. In addition, continued investment in the frontline curriculum advisory service will ensure more teachers are equipped to successfully implement the updated national curriculum.

This investment is a step forward in reaching the Government’s target to get 80% of Year 8 students at, or above, the expected curriculum level for their age in reading, writing and maths by December 2030.

Assessment tool for Years 3-10 in reading, writing, maths, pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau#

• $75.8m operating funding
• $9.8m capital funding.

Funding of a new assessment tool for Years 3 to 10 in reading, writing, maths, pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau will support quality, consistent assessment and reporting for approximately 540,000 students.

Teachers will be trained to administer the assessments and determine appropriate next steps for individual students based on the results.

The tool will enable the creation of trusted data about student progress and achievement in Years 3 to 10.

Maths and pāngarau – Targeted staffing for Years 0-6#

• $56.1m operating funding.

143 FTTE targeted intervention staffing will be allocated across schools and kura to deliver targeted, evidence-based teaching to accelerate learner progress in maths and pāngarau for Years 0 to 6. Staffing will be allocated based on need and will be available to schools from Term 1 2026. It will help classroom teachers by:

• providing a programme that supports targeted small group teaching to accelerate maths learning for students that need additional support
• developing targeted learning plans for individual students
• building consistent use of accelerative maths practices within schools.

This funding will help schools respond to their students’ learning needs early and effectively, so every learner can achieve and progress. PLD and resources will be provided to support the implementation of targeted intervention teachers in schools.

Maths and pāngarau tutoring for Year 7-8 students#

• $39.8m operating funding.

This funds the delivery of small group teaching supported by a digital learning platform for up to 34,000 Year 7 to 8 students per year, starting in Term 1, 2026.

All schools and kura with Year 7 and 8 students will be able to identify the students who need additional support and will have access to this intervention. This programme has been designed to help those students meet curriculum expectations before they transition to secondary school. It will be based on the findings of the pilot currently being carried out with 3,000 Year 7 and 8 students, nationally.

Schools and kura will also receive professional learning and development opportunities to help them support and implement the programme.

Early maths and pāngarau check#

• $3.3m operating funding
• $0.9m capital funding.

This initiative will provide the first nationally available tool to check and monitor student progress in maths at Year 2. This check, available in 2026, will provide teachers with a comparable resource to the Phonics Checks.

The maths check will provide teachers with information on how students are progressing and will help to identify students who would benefit from additional support. This information will be critical in ensuring schools can provide timely, targeted support to those students that need extra help as early as possible.

Teachers will receive professional development to use the maths check effectively.

Science and pūtaiao kits for Years 0-8#

• $39.9m operating funding.

A library of hands-on science and pūtaiao kits will be made available to all schools and kura with learners from Years 0 to 8, to improve science education outcomes.

The kits will empower teachers to deliver the new knowledge-rich science and pūtaiao curricula and will be accompanied by teacher development opportunities to make science more engaging and accessible for students.

Structured literacy approaches – Staffing expansion#

• $29.7m operating funding.

This funding increases ongoing structured literacy approaches staffing, expanding them to Years 0 to 6. It maintains the 2025 one-year expansion of 46 additional FTTE and adds a further 32 FTTE. This brings the total ongoing staffing resource to 349 FTTE and addresses further demand for this support.

This investment means more learners will benefit from targeted teaching support to accelerate their literacy progress.

Secondary Curriculum Advisors#

• $8.3m operating funding.

12 additional secondary Curriculum Advisors will work directly with schools and wharekura to support the implementation of the revised national curriculum and assessment changes.

Curriculum Advisors will be distributed across the Ministry regions and will provide greater coverage of support for all secondary schools.

Homework and tutoring services for Years 9-10 to meet NCEA co-requisites#

• $6.6m operating funding
• $0.03m capital funding.

New homework and tutoring services will be made available to learners in Years 9 to 10 at schools with 50% or more Pacific learners. The funding will be used to implement a combination of homework centres and tutoring (online and face to face) in literacy and numeracy.

The initiative responds to the rates of Pacific learners achieving the required co-requisite in literacy and numeracy in 2023 and subsequently in 2024. In the medium-term we expect to see more Pacific learners passing the co-requisites the first time, leading to greater enrolment and achievement in NCEA at each level.

Early oral language – Strengthening early learning#

• $12.4m operating funding.

This funds the delivery of the ENRICH (Enhancing Rich Interactions) programme to up to 525 Early Childhood Education (ECE) services, the development and implementation of oral language resources for ECE teachers in all settings, an evaluation of the Kōwhiti Whakapae oral language progressions, and the development and piloting of a tool to monitor children’s oral language development.

This will improve teachers’ capability and professional knowledge about how to support oral language learning and development, while also engaging parents and whānau in the process.

NZQA – NCEA and scholarship delivery#

• $10.0m operating funding.

This initiative provides funding to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) to address the funding gap between the cost of delivering assessment for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and New Zealand Scholarship, and the funding received by NZQA to deliver these services.

This will contribute to New Zealand’s national secondary school qualifications and associated assessments being credible, robust and world leading.

NZQA – Strategic technology enhancement project – Establishment phase#

• $5.3m operating funding.

NZQA’s existing core systems (known as eQA) hold records of learner achievement, information about standards, qualifications and credentials and underpin both NZQA’s ability to maintain these records and the public’s ability to access them. eQA is 20 years old and becoming increasingly fragile, which creates operational, reputational and security risks. 

This investment provides funding to NZQA to employ 21 FTE and vendor resources to create a detailed business case for the Strategic Technology Enhancement project to begin addressing the risks posed by eQA.