Annual Report 2019

The Annual Report 2019 outlines the Ministry’s key achievements over the past year and details progress against long term outcomes and objectives. It includes non-financial performance information and the Ministry’s financial statements.

A copy of the full report is available for download, along with the Vote Education and Vote Tertiary Education Section 19B reports in Relation to Non-Departmental appropriations for the year ended 30 June 2019.

Introduction from the Secretary for Education

Full Annual Report 2019 and Section 19B reports

Introduction from the Secretary for Education

We have a role in both shaping the education system and delivering services to achieve equitable and excellent outcomes. For 2018/19 that has involved maintaining and improving our core services while listening to and engaging New Zealanders on the Government’s extensive Education Work Programme.

Never before has every aspect of education been under scrutiny at the same time. This presents a huge opportunity to consider how the system works as an integrated whole and to advise on strengthening its coherence and alignment.

The Ministry has led and supported unprecedented engagement with teachers, whānau, tamariki, rangatahi, community leaders and employers on every aspect of the Education Work Programme. The results of that engagement will mostly be revealed or decided after the end of this annual reporting period.

For the Education Conversation | Kōrero Mātauranga, more than: 48,800 people were involved until July 2019; 16,400 survey responses about the future of education; 650 group wānanga, fono, hui or meetings were held.

We have also provided advice for government decisions to improve the National Certificate of Education Achievement (NCEA) and release a new Learning Support Action Plan setting out priority improvements to strengthen learning support. To improve our core learning support services we are implementing a new Learning Support Delivery Model across more than 200 clusters of around 3,000 schools and early learning services.

To improve equity we are working to support Māori education success as Māori. We have co-designed Te Hurihanganui – to address racism in the education system and better support whānau – and started implementing Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori to improve the capability of the workforce to use te reo Māori.

Woven through all of our advice is the overwhelming message from New Zealanders for hauora | wellbeing and a strong sense of belonging to be hallmarks of education in Aotearoa. There was also a call for the voices of young people to be heard and for their identity, culture and language to be respected and responded to. New Zealanders also asked for the system to be fair, easier for all ākonga | learners to navigate, and open to high levels of whānau and community connection.

The focus on hauora is evident in the Government’s Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy and Joint Venture to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence. The Ministry of Education is a key partner with the Ministries of Oranga Tamariki, Health, Justice, Social Development and others to make social services more integrated and the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

While the education system settings are shifting, we have continued to improve core services while making capability improvements to ensure we can respond to future demands, including:

  • developing resources to strengthen the curriculum and progress and achievement of ākonga | learners, including in te reo Māori
  • implementing initiatives to improve teacher supply and updating supporting planning tools
  • progressing development of a long-term plan for the school property portfolio and initiatives to address Auckland growth issues
  • delivering Te Ara Whiti (internal cultural responsiveness and race bias awareness) and promoting better understanding of te ao Māori and te reo Māori within the Ministry
  • developing tools and capability for us to better listen and respond to stakeholders.

I acknowledge the great work that Ministry staff do every day and thank them and our partners for the results we have achieved this year.

In closing, I pay special tribute to our people in Christchurch, and those who joined them from around the country to respond to the aftermath of the horrendous events in Christchurch on 15 March 2019. They exemplified the public sector spirit of service.

Iona Holsted
Secretary for Education

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