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New Zealand : Organisation/control of education system

Last updated: 25-Mar-2008

• 2.1 Organisation and control of system/structure
• 2.1.1 Control
• 2.1.2 Funding
• 2.1.3 Private sector education  

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This information is intended to provide the background context of structure and control, within which the curriculum and assessment frameworks are implemented.

2.1 Organisation and control of system/structure

2.1.1 Control

National agencies

The Government determines the educational structure, with some variation from the basic structure allowed under specified circumstances with permission from the Secretary or Minister of Education.¹⁰

There was major educational reform in 1989 with the establishment of the Ministry of Education, which replaced the Department of Education. Its role is to 'provide policy advice to the Government, help to implement education policy, and ensure that education resources are used efficiently and fairly'.³³  It is also responsible for developing the specification for the curriculum (curriculum statements), allocating resources and monitoring effectiveness.¹³

Other national agencies with major responsibilities for education are:

• The Education Review Office (ERO): a government department which reports publicly on the quality of education in all schools and early childhood centres.
• The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA): an independent body which administers qualifications and provides assurances about qualifications, oversees the examinations system and develops the National Qualifications Framework.
• Skill New Zealand (formerly the Education and Training Support Agency): which oversees a range of initiatives designed to build a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. Skill New Zealand is under contract to the Minister of Education and works with the Ministry of Education to develop skills and training policies.
• Specialist Education Services (SES): provides specialist services to students who have complex learning, communication and behaviour needs, and to their families, early childhood services and schools.
• Early Childhood Development (Unit) (ECD): a crown agency responsible for the promotion and development of high quality, accessible and culturally appropriate early childhood education.
• Careers Services Rapuara: which provides career planning and information. The Service works with schools to help them meet their obligations to provide career planning programmes for students.¹³

In addition, there is also the largely self-funding Teacher Registration Board, which maintains teacher registers for the early childhood and school sectors,¹⁰ and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER). Established under its own Act in 1945, NZCER continued with little change through the reform years.¹⁰

The structure of most educational institutions is determined by the decision makers in that institution (boards/councils/trusts/incorporated societies' office holders/chief executive officers) within certain legislative or resource constraints, e.g. pertaining to the governing structures of state institutions.¹⁰

Schools and boards of trustees

All state and private schools must operate under the provisions of the Education Act of 1989.² All state primary and secondary schools (and all integrated schools) in New Zealand are governed by boards of trustees, the first of which were elected in 1989, and include elected parent and community volunteers, the school principal and a staff representative. Secondary school boards of trustees must also have a student representative. Trustees are elected by parents of students enrolled at the school. Boards of trustees have considerable autonomy and work to develop, in each school, a written charter of aims, purposes and objectives of the school, validated by the Minister of Education. In its governance role, the board of trustees is primarily responsible, through the charter, and in consultation with the principal, staff and school community for:

• Setting goals and objectives for the school which reflect the aspirations of the school and the local community, and policies for their implementation.
• Establishing school policies to monitor and evaluate their results.
• Regularly reviewing the policies^40,13

Boards of trustees are required to take all reasonable steps to achieve, meet and follow the "National Education Guidelines".³¹ (These give direction to schools in a number of areas. They contain a set of desired government outcomes for education - the National Education Goals, and a set of administrative requirements for schools - National Administration Guidelines.) The performance of boards of trustees is regularly monitored³⁶ through Education Review Office (ERO) accountability reviews, which are seen to be of greatest use where either good practice is recognised or shortcomings are identified sufficiently plainly in the report to provide the trustees with a clear basis for action.⁴⁰ Boards of trustees are accountable for meeting the objectives set in their charter and for managing the funds they receive from the Government to run the school. They are required to present an annual report to their community and the Ministry of Education.¹³

Principal

The role of the principal is to manage the day-to-day activities of the school within policies established by the board of trustees. A principal is also usually responsible for assessing staff performance.¹³

Early childhood education

There are various agencies involved with the control and provision of early childhood education and care in New Zealand. The Ministry of Education, in the first instance, provides policy advice on early childhood education, licensing of centres, charters for centres, and funding. The Ministry also oversees the effective implementation of government policies for the early childhood sector and has responsibility for the management of contracts for a range of government-funded early childhood services. Other main agencies involved are:

• The Early Childhood Development Unit: this provides support for the establishment of early childhood education services, a national and international information service, production and dissemination of early childhood education resources, the operation of parent support projects, grants and support for community playgroups and Pacific Island language groups, and management of the Parents as First Teachers National Centre.
• The Education Review Office: a department of state with the responsibility for reviewing licensed and chartered early childhood education services on the ways they meet their legal requirements and the aims and objectives set out in their charters.¹⁹

2.1.2 Funding

General/schools

Compulsory education and post-compulsory upper secondary education for 16- to 18-year-olds in New Zealand is funded by the Government to varying degrees, depending on the type of school (state school, state integrated school or private school) and on the year levels of the students. However, local communities often contribute to the expenses of local schools.¹³

Education is compulsory for everyone between their sixth and sixteenth birthday (although most children start school at age 5) and is, in principle, provided free. Many schools do, however, levy voluntary contributions from parents to augment their income from grants and other sources.⁴⁰ Such levies are becoming a particularly significant aspect of school funding in city schools and are linked to school popularity and parents' ability to pay. Fees from overseas students are also becoming a lucrative source of income for some secondary schools.⁴ Examination fees are charged for some secondary school examinations. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) sets these.¹³

Since the 1877 Education Act, education in New Zealand schools has been free, compulsory and secular. There are many who would now challenge the view that education is still free, given the fund raising efforts needed to equip schools adequately. Fees are charged by most early childhood services and tertiary education institutions; the latter have increased in the 1990s.¹⁰

Schools receive resources from the Ministry of Education in four distinct streams:

• The operations grant: administered by boards of trustees.
• Staffing/salary funding: managed either centrally by the Ministry of Education, or by school boards of trustees, who can now opt to administer their own funding for staffing. Boards of trustees which take this option pay salaries from a pool of funding allocated to the school according to a set formula.
• School property.
• School transport assistance.¹³

The funding of capital works for state schools is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education.¹³

Levels of resourcing are set by the Government to ensure that they are adequate for the delivery of the New Zealand Curriculum to all students entitled to attend school.¹³

Supplementary funding is available on application for delivery of programmes to students with special needs, for English for speakers of other language (ESOL) programmes and for senior programmes in secondary schools.¹³

Funding also includes targeted allocations to address barriers to learning associated with socio-economic status. This is called Targeted Funding for Educational Achievement (TFEA). To decide how much extra funding to give to each school, the Ministry of Education gives each school a rating based on data from the Census and from the school's own roll. Schools do not have to apply for TFEA funding; it is paid to them automatically. The vast majority of schools receive TFEA funding on a sliding scale.¹³

To support Maori language learning, additional funding is also available to schools which run Maori immersion or Maori language programmes. The level of funding depends on the level of immersion of the programme.¹³

Pre-compulsory education

The Ministry of Education also provides funding to early childhood centres.⁴⁰

To be eligible for government funding, early childhood services must be chartered. Under the Education Act 1989², all charters are expected to contain a Statement of Desirable Objectives and Practices (DOP) which is gazetted by the Minister of Education. The purpose of DOPs is to support early childhood services in receipt of government funding to provide a high quality of education and care. Services are required to develop their own charters, incorporating the DOPs, in consultation with parent users, caregivers and the community. Charters are then approved by the Ministry of Education on behalf of the Minister of Education.²⁸ Chartered early childhood services can then claim funding for a maximum of six hours per child place per day, with a limit of 30 hours per week. The precise funding formula varies according to the type of service, the quality standard met and the ages of the children enrolled.¹⁹

Educational services

In addition to funding educational institutions, the Government also funds a range of departments and crown-owned entities to provide educational services. There are two departments: the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office (ERO). Five crown-owned entities in the education sector (listed below) receive an annual government grant on the basis of a purchase agreement which specifies the outputs being 'bought'. These are the:

• Careers Service (Quest Rapuara).
• Early Childhood Development Unit (ECD).
• Education & Training Support Agency, now known as Skill New Zealand.
• New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).
• Specialist Education Services (SES).¹⁰

Funding of post-school institutions and industry training

State tertiary institutions (universities [wananga], polytechnics and colleges of education) are funded on a per full-time equivalent student basis, which is calculated to be approximately 85 per cent of the costs. Costs of courses are set out in bands, allowing for the higher costs of courses such as, say, dentistry. Fees are charged for the balance. Capital costs have a mixed funding basis (government and institution). Some courses are fully government-funded, e.g. courses for the long-term unemployed offered at polytechnics. Private training institutions can compete for a pool of 'per-student' funds, but only some are successful. They can apply to supply the full government-funded courses and receive reimbursement from the Government if they are successful. There is some industry training funding available. Otherwise, fees or other community support are required to keep them operating. With the exception of the full government-funded courses, students pay fees for all courses. The fees structure varies widely, in part depending on what the institution's own policies are. In some cases, employers will pay the fees on behalf of the trainee or student. Students attending tertiary institutions can receive a means-tested student allowance, and/or take out a student loan to help defray their costs (fees, texts, living costs). The student loans scheme is administered by the Government. Foreign students pay full fees, that is to say they do not receive the benefit of government subsidies.¹⁰

2.1.3 Private sector education

At July 1998, there were 2,774 schools in New Zealand; 2675 were state or state integrated schools (see below) and the remaining 117 were private (independent).¹⁶

Private/independent schools

As at 1 July 1998, private school students numbered 24,836 of a total of 724,579 school students in New Zealand. They accounted for 3.4 per cent of the total New Zealand school population. This percentage is decreasing gradually year by year in view of the continued integration of private schools into the state school system (integrated schools, see below). Private (or independent) schools charge fees, but also receive some funding from the Government (currently equivalent to around 30 per cent of the average total cost of state schooling for Years 1-10 (students aged 5/6 to 15/16), and around 40 per cent for students in Years 11-13, aged 16 to 18). They are governed by their own independent boards, but are required to meet certain standards in order to be registered.^34,18,²⁶

Under the Targeted Individual Entitlement Scheme (TIE), the Government also funds some places in private schools for children from low income families.⁵

The Education Act 1989² makes provision for the registration and inspection of private schools. Private schools are, however, not bound by any of the requirements contained within the Education Act 1989 relating to state school curriculum, management or administration structures.⁵

Integrated schools

As a result of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975,³since the early 1980s, many private schools - particularly denominational schools - have integrated with the state system. Such integrated schools retain their own special character (generally a philosophical or religious belief) and incorporate this into the school programme, while adhering to state curriculum requirements.⁴⁰ Integrated schools receive the same government funding for each student as state schools, but the buildings and land are privately owned. The costs of property development are therefore met through attendance fees, although government funding is provided for maintenance costs.¹³   Any legislative provisions which apply to state schools also apply to integrated schools. In 1997, integrated schools represented almost 11 per cent of all New Zealand schools; the majority (78 per cent) are Roman Catholic schools.⁵

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