Investing in early childhood education#

Investing in early learning supports children's development and provides a foundation for learning and good life outcomes.

Budget 2025 is making a significant investment in the Early Intervention Service (EIS) to meet demand and support more children in early learning. This will reduce wait times and enable children to access the service quickly and get support in the early years and into the first year of schooling.

Boosting children’s oral language development in the early years will receive $12.4 million of funding. Teachers, home-based educators, parents and whānau will get more support and resources to improve how oral language learning is delivered and supported in early learning services and at home. To deliver foundational support to benefit all learners, the ENRICH (Enhancing Rich Interactions) programme will be delivered to up to 525 early childhood education services.

To strengthen the sustainability of the kōhanga reo network, Budget 2025 invests $4.1 million for Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust to invest in their data capability.

To support ongoing access to quality and affordable early learning, Budget 2025 is investing $51.1 million to deliver a 0.5% uplift to the Early Childhood Education sector subsidies.

Budget 2025 is also investing $3.9 million of operating funding for the cost of conducting an Early Childhood Education funding review.

Learning support and curriculum#

Early Intervention Service strengthened and extended to Year 1 learners#

• $216.6 million operating funding
• $9.4 million capital funding.

This extends the Early Intervention Service (EIS) from early childhood education through to the end of Year 1 of primary school. This will help students who need additional support to have a smoother and more effective transition. It also funds expansion of the current service to address growing demand. This includes:

• More than 560 new specialist staff for the expanded EIS to the end of year 1 and expand the current service.
• 20% increase in funding for Study Awards to grow the EIS specialist workforce.
• Funding increase for EIS service providers that have not had a price increase since 2019.
• This initiative will increase participation in education, improve achievement, and reduce the need for support later in life.

Early oral language – Strengthening Early Learning#

• $12.4m operating funding.

This initiative provides funding to promote children’s oral language development and emerging literacy in early learning. Funding enables 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 development resources for ECE teachers in all settings, an evaluation of Kōwhiti Whakapae, and the development and testing of tools to monitor the progress of children’s oral language development.

This initiative supports ECE teachers to improve how oral language learning is delivered and enhances rich interactions between teachers and children to improve children’s oral language and literacy skills.

Māori education#

Kōhanga Reo data administration #

• $4.1m operating funding.

This initiative provides funding for Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust to invest in Information and Communication Technology costs, a centralised data administration team and human resource staff improvements. This will support the Trust to assist kōhanga reo with their data submissions to the Ministry.

This initiative supports the sustainability and data capability of the kōhanga reo network, which consists of 416 kōhanga reo serving over 8,500 children (2024 ECE census). It will also provide the Ministry with more accurate and timely data to drive consistent improvement in achievement and attendance.

Funding and regulation#

Early Childhood Education - Cost Adjustment#

• $51.1m operating funding.

This initiative delivers a 0.5% uplift to the universal and targeted subsidies provided to the Early Childhood Education sector.

This supports services to manage the increased costs of provision, while maintaining access to quality and affordable early learning.

Early Childhood Education funding review#

• $3.9m operating funding
• $0.2m capital funding.

This initiative provides funding for the establishment and ongoing costs of a Ministerial Advisory Group to conduct an Early Childhood Education funding review, and time-limited departmental FTE funding to allow for the Ministry of Education to support the review work.