Schools’ operations grant – Cost pressure#

• $121.7 million operating expenditure.

This initiative provides funding for a 1.5% cost adjustment to the operational grant for schools and base funding for Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, funding for Secondary-Tertiary Programmes, Service Academies, and operational components of charter school funding to maintain broad equivalency.

This will support schools to meet rising running costs, including staffing (teachers employed above their staffing entitlement and non-teaching staff), curriculum delivery, and other general day-to-day operations, such as heat, light, and water, or repair and maintenance costs.

All state and state-integrated schools will receive an adjustment to their operational grants. This cost adjustment will take effect from 1 January 2026.

Independent schools subsidy increase#

• $15.7 million operating expenditure.

This initiative provides increased support for independent schools by raising the per-student rates of the independent schools subsidy, and making funding adjust for changes in the volume of students. In total, the subsidy will increase by 11%, from $41.6m per year to $46.1m per year.

Independent schools will have an increase in government funding per-student from the start of the 2026 school year.