ECE Language Codes Data Services
This page provides information about language codes the Ministry uses in its Early Childhood Education (ECE) data collections.
Last Updated: August 2022Description
Language codes are collected in two places in our Early Learning Information (ELI) system.
Home Language
Child demographic data contains information held by an ECE service about a child.
The language the child’s family speaks at home is one of these demographic fields.
The ELI specification allows for up to three home languages (1 is mandatory, 2 & 3 are optional).
To ensure consistency with other government agencies, the Ministry of Education uses Statistics New Zealand's standards for the definition and classification of language.
All enrolment forms for early learning services should allow students to list up to three home languages. Similarly, up to three home languages are accepted in early learning Student Management.
Teaching Language
The annual ECE census (return) collects the languages of communication used in teaching during in the ECE Return period.
The ELI specification allows for up to five languages to be captured in the ECE census . The percentage of time each language is used in teaching is also collected.
The current language codes and descriptions are included below, as well as previous versions of the standard.
Language CodesUpdated: Mar-2018
- Current 2018 ECE Language Codes [MS Excel 13kB]
2013 Language CodesUpdated: Apr-2013
- 2013 Language Codes [MS Excel 14kB]
Pre-2013 Language CodesUpdated: Apr-2013
- Pre-2013 Language Codes [MS Excel 14kB]