Transforming New Zealand Education: Raising Standards, Equity, and Student Success

Thank you, Prime Minister.

Over the past three years, we have been focused on one overriding objective: lifting educational achievement for every young New Zealander. And a huge part of that has been closing the equity gap, ensuring that your means do not determine your destiny by providing a world-leading education for every young person in our schools.

Because we are ambitious for every child in this country.

A world-leading education system starts with ensuring every child learns to read, write and do maths well. It means giving teachers a clear, knowledge-rich curriculum and the tools and support they need to teach it. It means regular assessment and ongoing investment in our learning support system to ensure that falling behind doesn’t mean staying behind.

For too long, declining achievement was met with excuses when it should have been met with action.

We are undertaking an ambitious reform programme.

We have not been prepared to sit back, commission reports that are never acted on, and watch another dot point appear on a graph of educational decline and make more excuses, wishing, years later, that we had done better.

Because each dot point on that graph of decline represents tens of thousands of children. Children who get one chance at school, and whose futures depend on us getting this right.

This demands urgency. It demands action grounded in evidence and the determination to see it through.

And that is what we have done. And I am incredibly grateful to have a Prime Minister who got into politics for this very reason, to give our kids a brighter future, and has backed me all the way.

The Prime Minister has outlined what we have delivered. We are now seeing encouraging early improvements for the first time in many years. Parents are noticing it, teachers are reporting it, children can feel it.

There is still a long way to go. But these early results show that what we are doing is working. Now is the time to build on that progress. We cannot afford to go backwards.

We’ve made significant changes in primary education. And our ambition cannot stop there. Now we’re undertaking the most substantial reform of senior secondary education in a generation.

I want to be very clear. NCEA is not delivering. We are replacing it.

NZQA’s own advice exposed the problem with NCEA: too many students collecting disconnected credits to get across the line.

Our young people deserve better than a low bar.

The decision is made and the work is underway. We are building the new qualifications, finalising the curriculum and getting on with delivering a better system for our young people.

Today, we are taking the next step.

Currently, many students turn 16 partway through Year 11 and when they do they are free to leave school.

I don’t believe we should be accepting this as the standard for our kids.

A re-elected National Government will raise school leaving requirements by requiring students to complete Year 11.

For students who turn 16 during Year 11, that will mean staying at school and finishing the year. For students who turn 16 during Year 12, the requirement will remain that they stay until their 16th birthday.

This is a measured, practical change. But it’s an important one.

Our expectation is clear: students should complete that important year of learning.

Because our changes to the national curriculum will mean that from 2028, Year 11 will include compulsory English, maths and science, with students sitting the Foundational Award in literacy and numeracy at the end of the year.

We want students to have the time to build those skills, consolidate their learning and demonstrate their achievement. Because literacy and numeracy are not optional extras. They are essential life skills.

They are what allow someone to understand instructions, communicate effectively, manage money, complete training, solve problems and participate confidently in the workforce. And they underpin success in almost every other area of learning.

I want every young New Zealander to leave school with those foundations firmly in place.

We are strengthening what students learn. We must also give them the time to learn.

The existing early leaving exemption will remain for the very small number of students each year who go into further training or work.

More Time Learning also means making better use of the school calendar.

Parents have told us how frustrating it is when different schools have different start and finish dates. For families with children at more than one school, that can mean additional childcare arrangements, more time off work and unnecessary disruption.

We will establish consistent start and end of year dates to give parents more certainty.

Ultimately, everything we’re doing comes back to two principles that have guided my work as Education Minister: excellence and equity.

When we have low expectations, unclear curricula and qualifications that don’t consistently recognise achievement, it is often the most disadvantaged students who miss out.

That’s why a knowledge-rich curriculum matters.

That why a focus on teaching the basics brilliantly an hour a day matters.

That's why evidence based reading instruction matters.

That’s why consistent assessment and meaningful qualifications matter.

And that’s why giving young people sufficient time to learn matters.

Our job is to build an education system that gives every student, regardless of their background, the opportunity to achieve their potential.

An education system where excellence is expected, achievement is recognised and young people have genuine choices about their future.

Over the past three years, we’ve laid the foundations for a fundamentally stronger education system. The tide is turning, achievement is lifting, and together we are working to build a better future for the next generation.

Thank you.