Hon Hekia Parata

Minister of Education
27 May 2016

Media statement
Majority of schools will get funding increase

Most schools will receive funding increases as a result of the Budget 2016 decision to target discretionary funding to schools teaching students most at risk of under-achievement, Education Minister Hekia Parata says.

“The final allocations won’t be known until July enrolment data is matched with Ministry of Social Development data, but indicative modelling shows that the overwhelming majority of schools will receive some extra funding.”

“Only a very small number of schools will receive no increase,” Ms Parata says. “At this stage it looks like that number will be 1 to 2 per cent of total schools. Those will be schools with no students who lived either 75 per cent of the first five years of their lives or 75 per cent of the last five years in benefit-dependent households.

“The same modelling suggests that more than two-thirds of schools will receive increases that are greater than the inflation rate and schools with significant numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds will receive considerably more.”

Ms Parata says she is pleased with the maturity of the reaction of the education sector to the Budget announcement.

“Teachers and principals have the best interests of kids at heart and they recognise that some schools need extra resources to meet the educational needs of their students.”

The money being allocated through targeted funding is the equivalent of a 1 per cent universal increase in school operations grants which would have resulted in $16 for every student, but under this targeting will mean $80 for every student from a long-term welfare dependent family.

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