Annual Report 2016 - Part one

Nature and scope of functions

Our purpose

We lift aspiration and raise educational achievement for every New Zealander.

Our vision

Our vision is to see all children and students succeed personally and achieve educational success.
We want every New Zealander to:

• be strong in their national and cultural identity
• aspire for themselves and their children to achieve more
• have the choice and opportunity to be the best they can be
• be an active participant and citizen in creating a strong civil society
• be productive, valued and competitive in the world.

Our work and investment priorities are focused on activities that will help the education system flourish and make it possible for everyone to succeed.

Our role

The Ministry of Education is the lead advisor to the Government on education: early childhood education, primary and secondary education and tertiary education. We are also the steward of the education system. As steward, we also ensure the system reflects and fulfils our responsibilities under the Treaty of Waitangi.

What we do

We need to ensure the system works for every learner, at every stage, and as a whole, and help educational leaders deliver the best outcomes for each and every child and student. To achieve this we:

• licence early learning providers, to ensure they are set up appropriately to provide education and support to children
• support schools and teachers to raise achievement through advisory and support initiatives, as well as learning programmes for individual students and their families or whānau
• provide special education services to children and young people, and support to early learning services and schools
• deliver direct infrastructure services to help schools function – property, transport and IT
• administer the funding for early learning services and for schools, and hold responsibility for tertiary education funding which is administered by the TEC
• gather, analyse, publish and use evidence, data and knowledge across the system
• provide advice to government across the system.

Our Ministers

The Ministry administers two Votes as shown in the following table.

Our education system partners

Within government, the New Zealand education sector has a large number of specialised agencies focused on delivering their part of the education system. We work with these agencies to improve and manage the performance of the education system to maximise results for New Zealand.

Careers New Zealand – Helps people make the best decisions about jobs, training and careers, at any age or stage of their lives.

Education New Zealand (ENZ) – The lead government agency for the promotion of New Zealand education internationally. ENZ works to build awareness of New Zealand as a study destination and to pave the way for exporting education institutions and businesses.

Education Payroll Limited (EPL) – A government-owned company managing the payroll for schools to ensure an accurate and reliable payroll service.

Education Review Office (ERO) – Te Tari Arotake Mātauranga – Reviews and reports publically on the quality of education in all New Zealand schools and ECE services. The ERO also publishes national reports on current education topics.

Network for Learning (N4L) – A Crown- owned company providing schools with a government-funded package that includes access to a secure network, uncapped monthly data, online content filtering and security services.

New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) – Mana Tohu Mātauranga o Aotearoa – Ensures that New Zealand qualifications are regarded as credible and robust, nationally and internationally.

Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – The Correspondence School – Provides distance education from early childhood to Year 13.

Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) – Te Amorangi Mātauranga Matua – Responsible for government-funded tertiary education and training offered in New Zealand.

The Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand – Matatū Aotearoa – The professional and regulatory body for registered teachers working in early childhood centres, schools and other education institutions in New Zealand, representing teachers in both English and Māori settings. The Council aims to support the professional status of teachers and high-quality teaching and learning.

Our organisation

The Secretary for Education (Acting, Katrina Casey) leads the organisation which is structured to support our stewardship role and achieve the priorities set out in our Four Year Plan 2016-2020.

Working internally and with other agencies to get a clearer view of the longer-term education system issues and responses, the Education System Policy Group (Deputy Secretary, Dr Andrea Schöllmann) provides an integrated education system policy function covering the learning journey from age 0 to 18.

To support the sector and better invest our resources, the Evidence, Data and Knowledge Group (Deputy Secretary, Dr Craig Jones) is tasked with strengthening our ability to turn data into knowledge that the sector and the Ministry can act on to raise student achievement.

The Early Learning and Student Achievement Group (Deputy Secretary, Lisa Rodgers) focuses on raising the quality of teaching and leadership and system performance through setting the direction of what and how students learn, building sector capability and an effective workforce, and encouraging innovation in the development of new pedagogy and the use of digital technology.

The Graduate Achievement, Vocations and Careers Group (Deputy Secretary, Claire Douglas) delivers policy advice, strategy and research on tertiary education and achievement, and secondary-tertiary transitions.

The Parents, Whānau, Communities and Employers Group (Deputy Secretary, Apryll Parata) provides leadership and policy advice on the perspectives of parents and whānau, and boosting outcomes for learners who are least effectively served by the system, particularly Māori and Pasifika children/young people. This group is also a mechanism for deploying resources to the Minister’s and Secretary’s priority initiatives.

The Sector Enablement and Support Group (Acting Deputy Secretary, Kim Shannon) is the key sector-facing part of our organisation and provides a single point of contact for early learning providers and schools.

Education Infrastructure Service (Acting Head of Education Infrastructure Service, Jerome Sheppard) is responsible for managing our property, payroll, transport and school IT services together within a single integrated business group.

The Strategy, Planning and Governance Group (Deputy Secretary, Ellen MacGregor- Reid) is responsible for the development, coordination and oversight of organisation strategy and planning.

The People, Capability and Resources Group (Deputy Secretary, Zoe Griffiths) works across the Ministry and is responsible for the organisational capability to ensure the critical people, processes, systems and infrastructure are in place to achieve the business strategies of the Ministry.

Our governance arrangements

We have various governance arrangements in place to ensure appropriate scrutiny of the Ministry’s performance. We have a Risk and Assurance Board with four independent members, one of whom chairs this board. During 2015/16, an internal Performance Board, chaired by the Secretary for Education, reviewed key corporate indicators on a monthly basis. There are various other governance boards providing oversight and assurance in areas such as ICT, infrastructure and policy.