Foreword

This Government has a clear vision for education. We want a high quality public education system that provides all New Zealanders with lifelong learning opportunities so that they can discover and develop their full potential, engage fully in society, and lead rewarding and fulfilling lives.

We need an education system that can adapt to the needs of the modern world. We need our people to be resilient, creative, and adaptable. That’s going to require a much more personalised learning experience, one that brings out the best in every individual.

We need to ensure that greater qualification attainment at the senior secondary school level is actually placing all young people on a pathway to further learning or employment.

Evidence shows that our education system is not delivering for all students. It does not cater well either to those with educational disadvantages or for the gifted and talented. There are persistent inequities within our system for Māori and Pacific, and students with disabilities and learning support needs. This needs to change. For example, Māori students have higher rates of early leaving exemptions compared with students from other ethnic groups.

The information in the report also shows that student well-being and student aggressive behaviours vary substantially between and within New Zealand Schools. We need a more comprehensive approach to wellbeing in schools.

We have an ambitious education work programme for the education work portfolio that will set our country up for the next 30 years. We can’t, however, achieve our vision just by dictating what ought to be done. We will need to work in a way that respects, engages and draws in the teaching profession, and brings the profession together with parents and whānau, iwi, employers and the wider community. Our work programme includes:

• Strengthening the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) to make sure that the qualification meets the needs of young people today.
• A long-overdue review of Tomorrow’s Schools.
• A new approach to measuring learners’ progress against the curricula.
• A strategy for continuously raising achievement for Māori learners, and a strategy to raise achievement for Pacific learners.
• An action plan for learning support so that we can get on and make the changes we know are needed.

We are committed to rebuilding our public education system so it meets the needs of all learners and supports them to succeed. This is our chance to make a real difference and set the future for our children and young people.

I am pleased to present to Parliament Ngā Kura o Aotearoa New Zealand Schools Report – 2017.

Hon Chis Hipkins
Minister of Education.