This Government is focused on raising student achievement and to do that our children need warm, safe and dry classrooms. Our priority is to deliver value-for-money projects as quickly and efficiently as possible, in the areas where the need is greatest, and for school property investment decisions to be more predictable with consistent decisions made against clear and transparent criteria.

Addressing student growth and the poor condition of school property#

Providing warm, safe and dry learning environments to support better outcomes for all students continues to be a priority.

This funding builds on last year’s investments and demonstrates ongoing commitment to improving the state of school property, funding projects that were at risk of being cancelled, and providing certainty to schools and communities.

Budget 2025 includes significant investment to:

• add over 8,000 student places, purchase new land, build and expand new schools and deliver over 300 roll growth classrooms
• support ongoing repair and upkeep of the property portfolio
• enable better access to specialist education by providing 25 new learning support classrooms and up to 365 property modifications to make schools more accessible
• expand the Māori Medium and Kaupapa Māori network by up to 50 teaching spaces over 2 years.

New builds will use standard designs and offsite manufacturing to respond more quickly to roll growth pressure in the most overcrowded and highest priority schools.

Budget 2025 will also set aside funding for targeted seismic remediation and strengthening works to priority school buildings in the greater Wellington region.

The Government has already demonstrated that significant progress can be made to reduce costs and deliver more at a lower cost. Over the last year the Ministry of Education has made significant improvements to the delivery of school property, including:

• 93% of projects delivered within budget
• 30% increase in the number of classrooms delivered
• 28% reduction in the average cost of each classroom
• 35% increase in the number of standardised or repeatable designs.

Roll growth classrooms – Contingency#

• $55.2m operating funding
• $294.5m capital funding.

This funding will provide additional classrooms at existing schools experiencing capacity pressures. This will support the expansion of the education estate to meet existing capacity pressures and forecast demand for student places due to population growth and demographic changes

The initiative provides funding for the construction of over 300 new classrooms.

New schools, expansions, and land purchases – Contingency#

• $32.5m operating funding
• $169.3m capital funding.

This initiative provides funding to build new schools and school expansions and purchase land for new school sites across New Zealand.

This investment targets areas of high growth to ease pressures and deliver education infrastructure that will meet the needs of students and school communities for years to come.

Seismic programme – Contingency#

• $17.7m operating funding
• $108.1m capital funding.

This funding will remediate school buildings in the Greater Wellington region which are known or expected to return low seismic ratings.

A triage and assessment workstream will be undertaken to identify and assess other school buildings which may represent an increased risk in a major seismic event.

Expanding the Learning Support Network and delivering property modifications – Contingency#

• $18.4m operating funding
• $90.0m capital funding.

This initiative supports students with learning support needs to access education by adding capacity to the specialist school network and making schools more accessible.

This funding delivers:

• 25 new learning support classrooms in the specialist school network
• up to 365 property modifications to provide equitable access to education for all students. These modifications include the purchase and installation of automatic doors, lifts, fencing, hoists and bathroom modifications.

Maintaining and upgrading the portfolio#

• $100m operating funding.

This initiative provides additional depreciation funding from 2028/29 onwards to maintain and upgrade the school property portfolio.

This funding will be distributed across the school property portfolio for maintenance and renewal activities such as:

• remediating mould and weathertightness issues
• testing for and removing asbestos
• repairing and replacing roofing material
• upgrading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.

Expanding the Māori medium and Kaupapa Māori Network – Contingency#

• $10.5m operating funding
• $50.0m capital funding.

This funding will deliver additional capacity across the Māori medium education and kaupapa Māori education network in high-priority catchments to meet the increasing demand for learning in te reo Māori. It supports actions to improve outcomes for Māori learners through the Māori Education Action Plan and works alongside teacher supply initiatives to increase provision in the Māori Medium and Kaupapa Māori network.

This investment will expand the Kaupapa Māori Education network by 50 teaching spaces.

New school property entity#

• $7.5m operating funding.

This initiative provides funding to support the establishment of a new entity to manage school property.

The funding is for a case for change business case, operating model and transition design, and an establishment team. This will enable an entity to be established promptly.

This is part of the Government’s response to the Ministerial Inquiry into School Property and is subject to a future Cabinet decision.