Source: Radio New Zealand
The government pledged to spend $131 million on improving students’ reading, writing and maths in this year’s budget. Unsplash/ Taylor Flowe
A school principal has said the government’s planned investment into education will help teachers and deliver a more consistent quality of learning across the country.
The government pledged on Tuesday to spend $131 million on improving students’ reading, writing and maths in this year’s budget.
Among other things, this will cover the use of digital writing tools in classrooms and an additional 36 maths intervention teachers.
President of the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association Lucy Naylor told Checkpoint she did not know of any principal who would argue with more funding.
She said the budget reflected that the government was investing in “things we can see are making a difference” – even if the data about its reforms was still in early stages.
Education minister Erica Stanford announced that National’s refreshed curriculum reforms had achieved an improvement of five percent in writing and six percent in maths.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford making the announcement. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Naylor argued the plans would reassure parents that “wherever their child goes to school they’re going to get a really good deal”.
She expressed doubt as to where the additional maths intervention teachers would come from and what their role would be.
And she said it was important for teachers to understand how to use digital writing tools effectively so as not to become a “babysitting tool”.
She anticipated a period of increased testing as schools would be “reluctant to let go of what they know and trust” without evidence of success.
But she said a large part of how this would be received by students would come down to how schools implemented extra testing.
She stressed that academics was only part of measuring a child’s success.
“Success is going to look different for every child.”
“Are they socially confident? Are they good communicators? Are they risk takers? All of those skills really do come into play if we’re looking at creating students who are going to go out to work in the wider world.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/18/primary-principals-association-backs-government-funding-announcement/