Education Minister Jan Tinetti says $300m in new funding will help prevent overcrowding in schools

The Government’s election-year budget, which will be unveiled on Thursday, will include $300 million in new funding to build new classrooms and accommodate more students. 

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Education Minister Jan Tinetti made the announcement at a school in Wellington on Monday morning. 

The money would help to ease pressure on the education sector and help to fix overcrowded and underfunded schools. Last year, the Ministry of Education imposed tighter zoning rules to prevent overcrowding in fast growing areas such as Papamoa.

Monday’s funding announcement includes $200m for permanent roll growth and $100m to address shorter term pressures on school rolls. An additional $100m will be spent on building up to four new schools, with the first two in central Auckland and Papamoa. 

Tinetti said having modern, warm classrooms would help to improve attendance and school achievements. 

“I have seen some of our ageing, damp and cold classrooms up close, in fact I’ve taught in them. And it’s frankly not good enough. Previous Government’s may have been OK with that but we’re not,” she said in a statement. 

She said the Government had already invested over $2.1 billion on growing the school property portfolio since 2017, and further education announcements would be made on Thursday.

The National Party has made education a key pillar in its election campaign, blaming the government for poor attendance and slipping standards. 

Its ‘Teaching the Basics Brilliantly’ policy aims at refocusing classrooms on reading, writing, and maths, and bringing back standardised testing.