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17 June 2019
New Zealand ShakeOut, our national earthquake drill and tsunami hīkoi, is taking place on Thursday 17 October at 1.30pm.
Between May and September 2016, the Ministry of Education organised almost 90 meetings with the education sector to discuss proposed changes to the way we fund our early childhood education services, our nga kōhanga reo and our primary and secondary schools.
This process of extensive sector engagement reached a consensus that the current funding system was not doing enough to raise the achievement of all our children and young people, especially those most at risk of underachievement, that the current system was too complex to understand, and that the decile funding system was unfairly stigmatising many schools, regardless of their educational success.
These meetings, along with those held by an advisory group comprising sector representatives, agreed that it was appropriate to continue working on a number of proposals for change.
Following this feedback, the Minister of Education took a paper to Cabinet seeking agreement to progress a number of the proposed funding system changes to the next stage of further policy design and testing. These proposals are designed to:
As a first step, a number of topic-specific technical reference groups will be established to support the more detailed design of these proposals. People on these groups will have expertise and experience in curriculum design and delivery and in the measurement of educational progress, as well as wider sector and educational expertise.
The groups include ones on:
To assist with the policy design and testing of these change proposals, the former Advisory Group on the review has been upgraded to a Ministerial Advisory Group. The group will meet regularly with the Minister to discuss the work of the reference groups and the proposed new funding components.
In addition, work will be progressed by the Ministry to determine how best to fund schools and Communities of Learning | Kāhui Ako to support learners needing additional learning support, and to determine a new funding formula to support independent schools. The latter work will commence following the completion of the technical working groups.
The proposed changes aim to ensure that every child and young person is given the opportunity to make at least a year’s worth of progress against the curriculum. We want to ensure that the $11 billion per year being invested in education achieves maximum impact in raising achievement for all learners, and that our funding systems support diversity of choice for all parents and their children via a variety of schooling options.
No decisions on any changes have been made and there will be further opportunity for sector and public involvement on the proposed changes before the implementation of any new funding components in 2020.
Find out more about the next stage of our review of the funding system by visiting the Ministry Of Education website(external link)
BY Education Gazette editors
Education Gazette | Tukutuku Kōrero, reporter@edgazette.govt.nz
Posted: 10:37 pm, 5 December 2016
17 June 2019
New Zealand ShakeOut, our national earthquake drill and tsunami hīkoi, is taking place on Thursday 17 October at 1.30pm.
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