On this page
It incorporates and replaces the Education Acts 1964 and 1989 and implements changes from the Education Work Programme.
Administrative changes
The Act repealed and replaced all major existing education and training legislation.
It is intended to be simpler, more user friendly and less prescriptive than the previous legislative framework.
The Education and Training Act 2020:
- introduces a new structure that follows the journey of students through education, starting with early learning, moving to schooling and then tertiary and vocational training,
- moves some prescriptive detail directly into regulations (so these provisions will not be found in the Act),
- moves other detailed provisions into schedules at the end of the Act, with "sunset clauses", meaning that they will expire after a set period of time and new regulations will need to be developed to replace them, and
- retains large parts of the existing education legislation, which were transferred into the Act unchanged. We took the opportunity to update some of the language throughout the Act where we could do so without changing the effect of the law itself.
System-wide changes
The Act makes it easy for those in the education sector to understand their rights and obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi by locating in one place the key provisions in the Act that recognise and respect the Crown’s responsibility to give effect to Te Tiriti.
The Act also enables the Ministers of Education and Māori-Crown relations: Te Arawhiti, after consultation with Māori, to jointly issue a statement specifying what education agencies must do to give effect to public service objectives that relate to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Giving better effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi at the national level
The Act gives the Secretary for Education the ability to direct education entities to comply with a requirement:
- to open or close for attendance or instruction (whether physically or otherwise),
- to operate, control or manage the entity,
- to provide instruction in any specified ways, such as through distance learning, and
- to set any restrictions on attendance with regard to health and safety requirements, in future national or local emergencies or during an epidemic.
The Secretary was temporarily given these powers to respond to COVID-19. The Act gives the Secretary the same powers to respond to future emergencies, but only when a national or local emergency or transition period is declared, or an epidemic notice is in force.
The Act also enables the Secretary to direct a board to reopen a school that has been closed due to an emergency, when the Secretary considers that the closure is no longer justified.
To ensure the integrity of NCEA, the Act prohibits the provision of NCEA offshore, except in certain circumstances, and makes it an offence to breach the prohibition.
However, because of COVID-19, the Act also includes a temporary provision to allow New Zealand schools to provide distance education and NCEA to their students based offshore until 31 December 2022, where those students have been enrolled with the school during 2020.
The Act clarifies that the chief review officer of ERO can request any information that is reasonably necessary or desirable from an applicable organisation or person, such as an early childhood provider or school, for the purposes of carrying out their functions.
Changes relating to early childhood education including ngā kōhanga reo
The Act introduces additional requirements to be considered for new early learning service applications:
- the children’s needs
- the community’s needs
- the applicant’s character and licensing history
- the organisation’s financial position.
Applicants whose applications are declined can re-apply.
The commencement of these provisions is delayed by up to 2 years.
The Act requires that all adults who live in or are present in a home in which children are receiving ECE must be vetted.
This only applies where a child receiving ECE is not a resident of the home.
An early learning service provider can be either the organisation providing the service, or a company that is a subsidiary of a parent entity.
The Act enables ERO to enter the premises of and obtain governance and management information from parent entities where it relates to early learning services under their control and obtain governance and management information.
Enabling ERO to obtain information from early learning service parent entities
The Act enables ERO to enter homes where early learning is taking place to review and evaluate curriculum delivery and health and safety performance as part of their wider review of the home-based service provider.
Enabling ERO to enter a home where home-based early learning is being provided
Changes for New Zealand schools
The Act explicitly states the right of all enrolled students to attend school whenever the school is open. Some students and their parents and whānau have found that schools only allow them to attend part time.
The Act clarifies that all students, including students with learning support needs and disabilities, have the right to attend school for all of the hours that the school is open for instruction.
The Act also locates the different aspects of the right to a free state education together in part 3 to make it easier to find and understand these rights.
The Act enables a student's parents to request and agree with the principal and the Secretary for Education to vary hours as part of a wellbeing transitional plan where the particular needs of the student require this.
The plan must be considered by all parties involved to be in the child’s best interests. The plan may be renewed once, upon the request of the parents with the agreement of the principal and the Secretary.
Transition attendance plan to vary attendance hours where it is in a student's best interest
There is a lack of a free and accessible complaint and dispute resolution process in the current State compulsory schooling system.
The Act enables the establishment of new local complaint and dispute resolution panels to hear serious disputes where these cannot be resolved at the school level.
The panels will have mediation, recommendation and decision-making functions, and will hear disputes relating to:
- rights to education (including enrolment and attendance)
- stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions
- learning support, racism and other types of discrimination
- physical and emotional safety, and
- physical restraint on a student by a teacher or other authorised employee.
Enabling a new dispute resolution panel to hear complaints about school board decisions
The Act enables the Teaching Council to renew practising certificates for teachers who cannot demonstrate satisfactory teaching experience in the 5 years prior to their application if they agree to a refresh process.
The refresh process has to be approved by the Teaching Council to ensure the teacher's knowledge and practice is up to date.
The Government, PPTA and NZEI, along with the NZ School Trustees Association and the Teaching Council, agreed to remove the requirement for teacher performance appraisals.
Therefore, the requirement for the appraisals to be audited by the Teaching Council is no longer needed and has been removed from the Act.
Removing the requirement for the Teaching Council to audit teacher performance appraisals
The Minister for Education can now appoint a deputy chairperson to the Teaching Council.
Renaming 'special schools' as 'specialist schools' seeks to more accurately reflect the role and importance of these schools in our education system. This reflects the shift in focus from the school itself to the specialist nature of the services provided to support students with learning support needs and disabilities.
Teachers have raised concerns that the existing framework is confusing and makes them feel unable to intervene in potentially harmful situations.
The changes make it clear that physical restraint can be used, as a last resort, to keep people safe from harm. Seclusion remains prohibited.
The Act enables new eligibility criteria for appointment as a school principal in state and state-integrated schools to be set by the Minister of Education (or delegated authority). The criteria are to be developed in consultation with children, young people and their parents, whānau and communities, and a range of relevant national bodies. The new criteria will assist in ensuring consistency in the skills, competencies, knowledge and expertise of principals.
The Act revises the objectives for school boards to:
- ensure school governance is underpinned by Te Tiriti o Waitangi and relevant student rights, and
- refocus boards on a wider range of objectives so that educational achievement is no longer the only primary objective. It is instead one of four primary objectives, alongside objectives for schools to ensure the physical and emotional safety of students and staff, that they are inclusive and cater for students with differing needs and that they give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
These changes are intended to strengthen school governance and refocus schools on what matters most for learners and their whānau.
One of the primary objectives for boards will be to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi by:
- working to ensure that their plans, policies and local curriculum reflect local tikanga, mātauranga Māori and te ao Māori
- taking all reasonable steps to make instruction available in tikanga and te reo Māori, and
- achieving equitable outcomes for Māori students.
This objective will take effect on 1 January 2021. This will provide schools with more time to prepare for the changes and give effect to them.
The Act enables the Minister of Education to issue a mandatory national code of conduct for board members. This would set minimum standards of behaviour, address concerns of self-interest and bring boards into line with other education sector governing bodies.
The Act provides that boards must consult their students (where appropriate), staff and school communities when making school rules/bylaws. This is to ensure that a school’s rules are appropriate for, and supported by, its community.
The Act provides the Minister of Education with the option of directing the Secretary for Education to appoint a commissioner when a board election is declared invalid (to govern the school until a new board takes office). This is in addition to the Minister’s current power to reinstate the previous board in the same circumstances.
It also removes the requirement that casual vacancies be advertised in a local newspaper. Instead, the Act provides that a board must notify its school community and the wider local community of the vacancy in the manner that best meets the needs of the school community and the wider community.
The Act provides that if the board of a state primary or intermediate school chooses to close their school for religious instruction to take place, they must have students 'opt in' and ensure that the other existing conditions are met.
This change ensures that children are only attending religious instruction with their parent or caregiver’s consent.
Requiring an 'opt-in' process for religious instruction in state primary and intermediate schools
The Act transfers responsibility for the development of, and consultation on, enrolment schemes from school boards to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry will administer each school’s enrolment scheme from a regional perspective, based on community need. These changes will commence from 1 January 2021.
The Ministry will be required to consult a school’s board and take reasonable steps to understand the views of the school’s community when developing a proposed enrolment scheme.
Once a proposed scheme is developed, the Secretary must consult a range of people and organisations and take all reasonable steps to discover and consider their views before the scheme is finalised.
Grand-parenting arrangements provide for the siblings of current students to retain the right to enrol at the school when a new home zone or amendment is implemented, provided they live in the old home zone.
Grand-parenting provisions will be used at the Secretary’s discretion when an enrolment scheme is established or when an existing enrolment scheme’s home zone is amended.
The Bill requires the Minister of Education to appoint a staff member to be a representative on the board of Te Kura.
Tertiary and international education
The Act continues the ability for the Minister to issue a Tertiary Education Strategy (TES) and clarifies that any existing TES remains valid and does not expire until replaced by a new one or withdrawn.
This clarification provides more certainty to the tertiary education sector, the Tertiary Education Commission and New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
The Act provides further information about the WDC endorsement of programmes as the current legislation is not sufficiently clear, which creates uncertainty for the sector and risks for NZQA when determining this matter. The new arrangements will allow providers to seek WDC endorsement of any programme.
The Minister may set parameters for the extent to which WDC endorsement of a programme is, or can be made, a pre-condition of NZQA programme approval.
The Act extends the limitation period for offences relating to student loan and allowance offences to up to 12 months after MSD becomes aware of offending. This is to ensure consistency with the limitation period for prosecuting other student loans and allowances offences and to allow sufficient time for offences to be detected, investigated and prosecuted.
These offences relate to the failure, by institutions and private training establishments, to provide information or who are providing false or misleading information in response to requests.
The Act allows the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to hold social housing information in the same database as student loan and allowances information and social security benefit information. This will allow MSD to efficiently store information and provide better client services.
The Act includes a provision to extend the expiry date of the Interim Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of Domestic Tertiary Students by one year, until 1 January 2022.
This is because the demands of COVID-19 have meant that providers, learners and workers have been unable to contribute to the development of a long-term code within the original timeframe.
In response to COVID-19, the Act cancels the EEL payment obligations for enrolments in the 2020 and 2021 years. This is to reduce the financial burden on education providers affected by the loss of international students. Levies already paid will be refunded.
The Act allows the Minister to vary a tertiary funding determination immediately following consultation, in circumstances where there is an epidemic notice issued or a national or local state of emergency.
This change will allow tertiary education organisations and the Tertiary Education Commission to quickly respond to, and support the recovery from, epidemics or states of emergency.
The Minister will still be required to consult all organisations that would be affected by the proposed variation and all other persons and organisations that the Minister considers ought to be consulted.
The Act allows the Minister to establish subcategories of private training establishments by Gazette notice. This clarifies the process for the Minister to recognise subcategories of private training establishments.
Planning and reporting for school boards
The Act also incorporates provisions relating to planning and reporting that were introduced by the Education (Update) Amendment Act 2017. These provisions came into effect before 1 January 2023.
Planning and reporting of school boards
Regulatory impact assessments and supplementary analysis reports
A number of amendments in the Education and Training Act required a regulatory impact assessment or a supplementary analysis report to be prepared.
Education and Training Act regulatory impact assessments and supplementary analysis report
