Who the allowance is for

The allowance recognises kaiako | teachers and tumuaki | principals who hold cultural knowledge and expertise. It is $5,000 each year and paid fortnightly.

Information and the purpose of the allowance are set out in the relevant collective agreements or equivalent individual employment agreements (IEAs).

• Primary teachers' collective and individual employment agreements
• Primary principals' collective and individual employment agreements
• Area school teachers' collective and individual employment agreements
• Area school principals' collective and individual employment agreements

Who is eligible

Principals

Principals must lead a school or kura which offers a Level 1 or Level 2 te reo Māori or Pacific language immersion programme, according to the roll return guidelines.

School roll return guidelines – Education Counts

Teachers

Schools can receive 1 full allowance for 1 eligible teacher. This can be split between 2 teachers if the employer agrees.

Teachers who are eligible include:

• primary or area school teachers covered by the relevant collective agreement or IEA
• teachers who already receive the Māori Immersion Teaching Allowance and/or Pacific Bilingual Immersion Teaching Allowance
• learning support coordinators or resource teachers
• Limited Authority to Teach (LAT) staff must be employed on a fixed-term basis of 6 months or more
• teachers already receiving a permanent unit for cultural leadership skills.

Teachers need to show their employer how they provide cultural expertise and leadership in line with the matrix below.

How the allowance is allocated

We first emailed schools about the cultural leadership allowance in February 2024. The first phase of allowances was allocated for eligible staff via the Education Payroll link in the email.

The allocation process and criteria are explained in the documents below.

Education Payroll has more information about eligibility and how to add the allowance to a staff member.

Cultural leadership allowance - EdPay