Lifting student achievement, Education Minister’s focus during ‘scrutiny week’

Thursday, 19 June 2025

Grilled about Budget cuts to a programme supporting children with disabilities or no dedicated funding for kaupapa Māori education, the Education Minister’s sole focus was on students and achievement outcomes in this year’s scrutiny week.

Erica Stanford maintained her focus on structured numeracy, literacy – including oral literacy ‒ and regular testing to address the “crisis” in educational achievement in Aotearoa.

She also defended the investment going into Māori education, supporting a bilingual education system, which was being done in ways not done before, she told the Education and Workforce Select Committee on Wednesday.

Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris asked the minister why there was no dedicated funding for kaupapa Māori education in the Budget, to which Stanford said it was “not set in one place”.

A virtual learning network was being rolled out as well as learning support co-ordinators, small group literacy support specialists, Māori curriculum advisers and investment in property for kura kaupapa Māori, she said.

“We heard from kura kaupapa and also Māori immersion units as well, that they don't have access to science books or literacy books that are in te reo Māori – we are funding those through this Budget.”

Results on the impact of different avenues of funding in Māori education would be tracked through a new assessment tool with a bilingual component, she said.

From next year, a twice yearly assessment requirement would be implemented in mainstream education to track results and would be broken down by ethnicity, region and gender.

Investment into structured literacy would have “the greatest outcome for our Māori kids” and did not need to be based on kaupapa Māori because “every brain learns the same when it comes to reading”, Stanford said.

“There are cultural aspects that teachers should bring in on the ground when they're delivering things, because that's their professional judgment.”

The approach to structured literacy would be mirrored in numeracy as well.

“If you take any department … I think education has had the biggest focus on equitable outcomes and resourcing,” Stanford said.

“I can't remember a government in living memory that has ever gone hey, we're going to equally fund it in te reo Māori as well.”

Stanford was questioned about the disestablishment of Kāhui Ako, or Communities of Learning, as part of the Budget, which paid schools to work collaboratively in groups, and redirect the money to support children with disabilities.

She said the programme was not working and was not “getting results”.

“When you look at Kāhui Ako and the amount that we spent on it, our results have been tracking backwards.”

But Labour MP Shanan Halbert said schools on the North Shore loved Kāhui Ako and did not have the opportunity to defend or provide evidence on it.

“What's more concerning for them is the loss of salaries to critical teachers in the area,” he said, to which Stanford responded: “I think that the more important question to be asking is, what is the impact for children?”

Disestablishing Kāhui Ako freed up 600 full-time teachers to remain in the classroom.

“I'm more interested in outcomes for children, which is why we are doing a huge amount of investment into front line resource.”

National Party MP Mike Butterick asked what the minister would be doing about kids starting school with language challenges.

Stanford said children with a lack of oral literacy was a global issue, which potentially stemmed from the use of devices, among other reasons.

An aspect of the Budget “which I think got lost a bit because of all the other learning support stuff”, she said, was an oral language skills programme in early childhood education (ECE), which would be funded across 525 ECE centres.

“So when they turn up to school they're ready to learn and ready to start reading and writing … actually it's a really exciting thing in this year's Budget.”

On learning support, Green Party MP Lawrence Xu-Nan questioned the minister on eligibility criteria for Ongoing Resource Support, where funding for those eligible had been increased.

In the Budget $122 million was funded for the scheme to support students with high and complex needs. “Eligibility criteria is one of the biggest concerns,” he said.

Sean Teddy of the Ministry of Education said having a more streamlined and clear funding system would enable an equally streamlined and clear application system “without necessarily having to change the eligibility criteria in order to make it a better experience”.

The funding was “already a massive budget, and I'm really proud of it”, Stanford said.

“We'll consider more in future Budgets about what we can do in certain areas.”

Education and Training Amendment Bill

Earlier in the day, Stanford faced the committee to respond to questions about the Education and Training Amendment Bill.

The changes to the bill included a refocusing of schools “on what matters most” – which was educational attainment as the top priority.

It included amendments to Section 127 of the Act which outlined the primary objectives of school boards including giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The amendment made educational achievement the primary objective with the other objectives contributing to it.

“We have had, as you know, over past 20 or 30 years, a decline in student achievement, and we need a focus on raising achievement, closing the equity gap, student outcome.”

Halbert asked whether advice was sought on the impact of “devaluing Te Tiriti” through the legislation.

“I disagree with the assertion in your question, it's not being devalued at all,” Stanford said.

“If we're going to honour the treaty, we need to make sure there are equal outcomes for Māori students, and I think we're doing more than any government in a very long time to achieve that.”