Budget 2025: $646 million boost for student learning support
Budget 2025 has delivered a $646 million boost for learning support.
Increased support for students with conditions affecting their learning is the issue schools have called for greater government investment in year after year.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said today that, across different initiatives, the Budget will provide funding for more than an additional 2 million teacher aide hours per year by 2028.
Stand out investments in Budget 2025 include $266 million to extend the Early Intervention Service so Year 1 students can access a range of supports such as speech language therapists and psychologists. The service currently stops when a child turns five. Funding for an additional 560 staff has been provided.
The Ongoing Resource Scheme for students with the highest learning needs in the country has received a cash injection, with $122 million in funding to meet growing demand. Funding has historically been restricted, with access to around 1% of students, though the number has been steadily growing.
Instead of the set funding model, there will now be increases in funding over the next four years. Students who already qualify are expected to receive additional support such as increased teacher aide hours, and an additional 1700 students are expected to qualify in the next four years.
Learning support coordinators will also be supporting all primary and intermediate schools by 2028, with a $192 million investment. The coordinators assess the needs of students and help them access support services. Only one tranche had been rolled out in New Zealand previously, increasing inequity in support among schools.
Contingency funding will also be in place for the construction of 25 learning support classrooms at schools and 365 property modifications at existing schools, with a $90 million investment over four years.
New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa, the primary teacher's union, recently called for an additional $2.5 billion investment in learning support over five years in a report. Its recommendation for professional development for teacher aides has been answered with $3 million in funding between now and 2028.
Primary principals and NZEI have previously called for a teacher aide to be funded for every classroom.
Kāhui Ako – which is funding for schools in a geographical area to become a network that collaborates and shares best practice initiatives and guidance – has been cut, with $375 million over four years instead set to be spent on learning support.
Resource Teacher: Māori and Resource Teacher: Literacy roles have been cut after the Education Minister proposed this earlier this year. Feedback from the sector on this proposal wasn't released publicly before this funding decision was announced. NZEI, affected teachers, and other education leaders called for funding for these support and specialist roles to continue, saying they helped students learn to read and supported Māori staff to deliver the curriculum and assess student learning.
Less money has been spent on Associate Education Minister David Seymour's charter school reintroduction than was set aside in last year's Budget. Around $4 million will be spent in education elsewhere.
Apart from the Resource Teacher: Māori roles, the Wharekura Expert Teachers role has also been disestablished. The Māori Education package of $36.1 million has been redirected into other Māori education initiatives such as the curriculum and support for teachers to develop Te Reo Māori skills.
A further $36.1 million allocated for 2023 Māori education collective bargaining settlements has been reprioritised. The Budget summary states this contingency funding was overestimated.
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Otago Daily Times
2 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Left bloc could turf coalition out of power: poll
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National continued a downward trend from the March survey, dropping 2.2 percentage points to 30.7 percent of the party vote - and overtaken by Labour, which gained 0.9 percentage points to 33.2 percent. The Greens' 1.6 percent increase brings them back to their election-night result of 11.6 percent, while Te Pāti Māori's 0.5 percentage point boost lifts them clear of the 5 percent threshold and - presuming they held all Māori seats - nets them a list MP. ACT dropped 2.8 points to 6.6 percent - the largest shift in party polling - while New Zealand First gained 1.9 points to 9.1 percent, upending the trend facing their coalition partners. Undecided or non-voters made up 6.5 percent of those polled - up from 6.1 in the previous poll. For parties outside Parliament, TOP (The Opportunities Party) gained 0.4 points to 2.2 percent, New Conservatives fell 0.3 points to 0.8, and all others combined were at 0.3 points, a 0.1 point increase on the last survey. More New Zealanders polled say the country is going in the wrong direction (46.6 percent) than in the right direction (37.8 percent), giving a net negative result of -8.8, a substantial decrease on March's 2.9 result. Little surprise then to see National leader Christopher Luxon's net favourability ratings drop further into the negative, from -3.9 percent in March to -9.8 percent, with significantly more respondents (45.5 percent) saying he performed poorly or very poorly, than said he performed well or very well (35.7 percent). That compared to Labour's Chris Hipkins on net 5.1 percent rating (34 percent negative, 39.1 percent positive) - though Hipkins also saw a steeper fall of 7.1 percentage points. The survey shows New Zealanders' preferred prime minister as Hipkins (23.2 percent, up 2.3), taking the lead over Luxon (18.8 percent, down 3.1). NZ First leader Winston Peters at 8.9 percent (up 1 point) recorded his highest result since 2017. Chlöe Swarbrick in fourth was at 6.9 percent (up 0.8) - a personal best and just ahead of ACT's David Seymour on 6.4 percent (down 0.4). The next highest ratings were former PM Jacinda Ardern (3.7 percent, up 0.1), Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke (1.7 percent, up 0.5), Finance Minister Nicola Willis (1.1, up 0.3) and Education/Immigration Minister Erica Stanford making her first appearance at 1 percent. 'I don't recognise the numbers' - Coalition plays down poll Luxon simply rejected the poll results. "Look, I mean, I don't recognise the numbers. There's lots of different polls and frankly I'm just not going to comment or focus on the polls. Frankly what we're focused on is we were elected in '23 and people get to decide again in 2026. "We've done a good job, and that's why we've got to focus on the economy, law and order, and health and education." He said New Zealanders had "responded really positively" to the government's Budget, and saw the economy turning a corner. 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We have to prove ourselves on election night, and we've got lots of time to do that." Peters refused to comment on whether his coalition partners were suffering from the handling of the pay equity changes. The next 18 months leading up to the election would show the "critical need for stability", he said, and having ruled out working with Chris Hipkins he was "comfortable and confident in our prospects" because the Greens and Te Pāti Māori in government would be "a nightmare". The 80-year-old Peters said economies internationally were in trouble as a result of "unprecedented times for the last, say, 80 years", and the party was looking at New Zealand's fundamentals: asset values, and the need to increase wages and decrease business tax. "We're out there to ensure over the next few months that we can show enough improvement in the economy from what we're doing to make the prospects of an improved tomorrow possible." 'Nice to be popular' - Opposition Hipkins was also not counting his electoral chickens, but was happy to point out the effect of the Budget, saying New Zealanders were "disillusioned" with the government overall. "New Zealanders can increasingly see that this government is taking the country backwards," he said. "I don't think anyone expected the government to cancel pay equity as a way of balancing its books. Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon told New Zealanders before the election that they knew their numbers, that everything all added up. It's clear that their numbers didn't add up." He said he did not pay much attention to small shifts from the minor parties or his personal ratings in the polls. "It's nice to be popular, but I'm really focused on making sure I win as many votes as possible for Labour at the next election." Swarbrick said New Zealanders wanted a sense of hope. "Things are feeling pretty bloody bleak. 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"The kind of anti-Māori, anti-wāhine, anti-woman, anti-worker, anti-climate, anti-rainbow, anti-woke type agenda that this government is pushing at the moment also is not appealing to the people who are trying to find a place to put their political support and trying to support those who fiercely advocate for them." He said their internal polling showed even higher support for the party and its style of politics - but the decreased support for ACT and increase for NZ First was a zero-sum game. "You've got a hard-right type voter ... I think they think that National is a little bit weak, which I agree [with] because they're allowing ACT to kind of run the show ... they will use Te Pāti Māori as their political football to kick us in the guts the hardest to garner the support of their voters, but at the end of the day the enemy for ACT is New Zealand First, and the enemy for New Zealand First is ACT." Explore the full results with RNZ's interactive charts. This poll of 1008 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure a representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 21-27 March 2025 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. The report is available here.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Analysis: New Zealand First gets bump in support after keeping mum on pay equity debate
The latest RNZ-Reid Research poll was conducted between 23 May - the day after the Budget - and Friday 30 May. Photo: RNZ Analysis : New Zealand First has achieved what its coalition partners couldn't in the latest RNZ-Reid Research poll - a bump in support following a Budget that was largely paid for by significant changes to the country's pay equity scheme. Our latest poll, conducted between 23 May - the day after the Budget - and Friday 30 May is a bad read for National with the party down in its polling, the coalition unable to govern if an election was held today, Christopher Luxon behind Labour's Chris Hipkins as preferred prime minister, and more people thinking the country is headed in the wrong direction than the right. It's not good news for coalition partner ACT either, its drop in polling released just days after leader David Seymour was sworn in as deputy prime minister, taking over the mantle from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters. The RNZ-Reid Research poll comes just a day after a 1News-Verian poll showing National, ACT and Labour had dropped in support while the Greens, New Zealand First and Te Pāti Māori were up. On those numbers the coalition would still be in a position to govern if an election was held today. With the exception of Labour, which is down in support in the 1News poll, the trends are fairly similar for the other parties and the numbers are within both polls' margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent. Both polls interviewed just over 1000 eligible voters and covered a similar polling period. The backdrop to both was a Budget that delivered very little for middle-income New Zealanders. While health and education investment was up, much of it would be needed to simply keep the lights on. The targeted investment was focussed on business owners, while meaningful increases in an ongoing cost of living crisis, like KiwiSaver government contributions, were cut in half and, in some cases, BestStart payments for children were canned altogether. There were small targeted increases for low-income families, yet pay equity claims that overwhelmingly benefit poorly paid women were set back potentially years. It was Seymour who declared ACT had saved the Budget by finding $12.8 billion in cuts with its changes to the pay equity regime, and it was National's Nicola Willis and Luxon who bore the brunt of the decision to rush the overhaul through under urgency and not consult with the public. On that score the poll reveals just a quarter of respondents - 25.5 percent - support the government's pay equity changes , while 68 percent of respondents think the government should have consulted New Zealanders first. New Zealand First barely featured in the pay equity debate in recent weeks and successfully avoided saying anything much on the issue, other than it was a collective Cabinet decision that it supported, the onus being on the word collective - a Cabinet manual requirement. As for the Budget, it was Willis who led the charge and, given many of ACT and New Zealand First's coalition committments have already been ticked off in the past 18 months, any disgruntlement with the piecemeal approach to it lie at the feet of National. But Luxon says he isn't focussed on the polls, going as far as to tell RNZ he "doesn't recognise the numbers". He says the response he's heard to the Budget has been nothing but positive, and given his time again on pay equity he wouldn't change anything. Peters noted the world is in "unprecedented times" and he believes his party is doing a good job remembering the fundamentals New Zealanders care about - that is, increasing wages and decreasing taxes. He wouldn't comment on whether his party had deliberately stayed out of the pay equity fray, instead saying he was concentrating on talking direct to voters and being a politician who actually listens. As for Seymour, he told RNZ different things motivate different voters and while it's possible pay equity fed into some people's minds when it came to polls he was of the view that "doing what's right is politically popular in the long term, and even if I'm wrong good policy is worth it". A bigger issue for all three parties in this poll is the issue of whether voters think the country, under the coalition, is headed in the wrong or right direction. In March, the RNZ-Reid Research poll showed more respondents believing the country was headed in the right direction (43.5 percent) than the wrong direction (40.6 percent). The post-Budget numbers - 37.8 percent right direction versus 46.5 percent wrong direction - won't sit well with the coalition. Luxon told RNZ voters understand it has been a difficult time and he senses they know the corner is being turned and "there's a sense of optimism". The poll, however, doesn't back that sentiment up. Explore the full results with RNZ's interactive charts . This poll of 1008 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 23-30 May 2025 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. The report is availabe here . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
School literacy service axed in Budget 2025, leaving 109 specialists jobless
Students with dyslexia and learning difficulties that affect reading and writing are set to lose personalised support in classrooms. In the Budget, the Government decided to cut 109 Resource Teachers of Literacy (RT Lit). The Ministry of Education says the move will release $39.2 million in
