Education in New Zealand

Education in New Zealand is nominally free for all primary, intermediate and secondary schooling. However, most schools also ask for a "voluntary donation" from parents, informally known as "school fees" or a "parental contribution".

Educational institutions

Early childhood education

Many children attend some form of early childhood education before they begin school.

Playcentre or Kindergarten (Ages 3 - 5)
Licensed Early Childhood Centres (Ages 0 - 5) (usually privately owned)
Chartered Early Childhood Centres (Ages 0 - 5) (state funded)

Primary and secondary education

Primary and Secondary education is compulsory for students between the ages of 6 and 16, and is a right until 18. Most students start at age 5 and remain in school for the full 13 years.

While there is overlap in some schools, primary school ends at Year 8 and secondary school at Year 13. The last two years of primary school are normally considered intermediate school instead of primary school, and is normally a school in itself, leaving primary school to end at Year 6. Outside of the following categories, many private schools, state area schools and state integrated schools take students from Years 0 to 13, or Years 7 to 13.

There are three types of school: state, private (or registered or independent) and state integrated schools. State and state integrated schools are government funded. Private schools receive about 25% of their funding from the government and rely on tuition fees for the rest. State integrated schools are former private schools which are now "integrated" into the state system under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 ^*.

Years of schooling

New Zealand has recently moved towards a system where school levels are identified by the year number. Before this, a system of Forms, Standards and Juniors was used, and still is used at some schools. Many independent schools still use them.

The years are numbered from 1 to 13. Primary school goes up to year 6, intermediate school finishes at year 8 and secondary school is the remaining five years of schooling.

Under the old system of Forms, Standards and Juniors, there were two Junior years followed by four Standard years in primary school, followed by seven Forms. Forms 1 and 2 were in intermediate school and the remaining five were in secondary school. A summarized table of old to new system conversions is below:

Year	Old system	Age in February	Age in December
1	Junior 1	5 – 5½	5½ – 6½
2	Junior 2	5½ – 6½	6½ – 7½
3	Standard 1	6½ – 7½	7½ – 8½
4	Standard 2	7½ – 8½	8½ – 9½
5	Standard 3	8½ – 9½	9½ – 10½
6	Standard 4	9½ – 10½	10½ – 11½
7	Form 1	10½ – 11½	11½ – 12½
8	Form 2	11½ – 12½	12½ – 13½
9	Form 3	12½ – 13½	13½ – 14½
10	Form 4	13½ – 14½	14½ – 15½
11	Form 5	14½ – 15½	15½ – 16½
12	Form 6	15½ – 16½	16½ – 17½
13	Form 7	16½ – 17½	17½ – 18½

Types of schools

Most schools cater for either primary, intermediate or secondary school students:

Years 1 - 6: Primary School (Ages 5 - 10)
Years 7 - 8: Intermediate School (Ages 11 - 12)
Years 9 - 13: Secondary School (Ages 13 - 17)

However, some schools cater for students across two or more of these groups. These are rarer than schools which teach the groups above. Area schools are generally found in rural areas, where there are not enough students to run three separate schools productively. A list of these types of schools, and the years they cater for, is below.

Years 1 - 8: Full Primary School (Ages 5 - 12)
Years 7 - 10: Middle School (Ages 11-14)
Years 7 - 13: Intermediate/Secondary School (Ages 11 - 17)
Years 1 - 13: Area schools (Ages 5 - 17)
Preschool - Year 13: The Correspondence School (Preschool - Age 17)

Secondary qualifications

The current national secondary school qualification is the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). Most students will sit examinations and internal assessments under this system over the last three years of secondary school. NCEA has three levels, one for each of the last three years of secondary school. NCEA replaced the old School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate and NZ University Bursary systems.

Some schools, which refused to accept NCEA as a new qualification in 2002, decided instead to offer overseas examinations, namely the General Certificate of Education, General Certificate of Secondary Education and the International Baccalaureate Diploma. The most common board for the GCE exams is the Cambridge International Examinations Board. For these exams, O-level is sat in year 11, AS-level in year 12 and A-level in year 13.

There are other school qualifications as well; University Entrance, based on NCEA results, allows entrance to New Zealand universities. New Zealand Scholarship is a qualification pitched at brighter students.

State school enrolment schemes

For state schools, the Education Amendment Act 2000 puts in place a new "system for determining enrolment of students in circumstances where a school has reached its roll capacity and needs to avoid overcrowding." Schools which operate enrolment schemes have a geographically defined "home zone". Residence in this zone, or in the school's boarding house, if it has one, gives right of entry to the School. Students who live outside the school's home zone can be admitted, if there are places available, in the following order of priority: special programmes; siblings of currently enrolled students; siblings of past students; children of board employees; all other students. If there are more applications than available places then selection must be through a ballot, that is randomly.

Critics have suggested that the system is fundamentally unfair as it restricts the choice for parents to choose schools and schools to choose their students. In addition, there is evidence that property values surrounding some more desirable schools become inflated, thus restricting the ability of lowers socio-economic groups to purchase a house in the zone.^*

Tertiary education

There are several branches of tertiary education in New Zealand.

For non-private institutions, see also: state sector organisations in New Zealand

Colleges of education (Teachers' Colleges)

Partial list of historical or currently existing colleges of education. Listed here are those which were listed ^* in Acts of Parliament as public (Crown-owned) providers of teacher education:

See: State sector organisations in New Zealand (current list)

Most colleges of education in New Zealand in the past 30 years have gradually consolidated (for example, Ardmore with Auckland), with the trend in the last 15 years to consider and effect mergers with universities closely allied to them, for example, the Hamilton and Palmerston North colleges amalgamated with Waikato and Massey respectively.

In the 2004-2005 period, the Auckland and Wellington colleges amalgamated with Auckland University and Victoria University respectively. The remaining stand-alone colleges are at Christchurch and Dunedin, with plans to amalgamate with universities they have been informally associated with.

The name 'college of education' is protected by Act of Parliament -- previously the name 'teachers' college' was protected. Only universities and standalone colleges of education may use this title. Thus, privately-owned institutions (which are not listed in Acts) providing teacher education such as the Bethlehem Institute (Tauranga) must use alternative names.

Polytechnics

For a list of polytechnics, see: state sector organisations in New Zealand

Private Training Establishments

Wānanga

See Wananga
for a list of wānanga, see: state sector organisations in New Zealand

Universities

Typically, a bachelor's degree will take three years, and a further year of study will lead to an Honours degree. Not every degree follows this 3+1 pattern: there are some four year degrees (which may or may not be awarded with Honours), and some specialist bachelor's degrees which take longer to complete. Typically, Honours may be awarded with first class, upper second class, lower second class or third class, but this can vary from degree to degree. A bachelor's degree may be followed by a Master's degree. A candidate who does not hold an Honours degree may be awarded a Master's degree with honours: such a degree usually involves two years study, compared to one year for a Master's degree for a candidate who does have an Honours degree. A candidate who has either a Master's degree or a bachelor's degree with Honours may proceed to a doctoral degree.

Entry to most universities is "open", that is to say that one only needs to meet the minimum requirements in the school-leaving examinations (be it NCEA or Bursary). A greater number of courses at NZ universities now have selective admissions, with the University of Auckland offering a large number of selective-entry courses. Mature students usually do not need to meet the academic criteria demanded of students who enter directly from secondary school.

Domestic students will pay fees subsidies by the Government, and the student-paid portion of the fee can be loaned from the Government under the Government's Student Loan Scheme. Weekly stipends can be drawn from the loan for living expenses, or the student can apply for a needs based (on assessment of parental income) "Student Allowance", which does not need to be paid back. "Bonded Merit Scholarships" are also provided by the Government to cover the student-paid portion of fees, however, receipt of the Scholarship requires the recipient to stay in New Zealand for a certain time after graduation. The New Zealand Scholarship and the New Zealand University Bursary are awarded to school leavers by a competitive examination and also provide financial support to school-leavers pursuing a university degree but do not entail any requirement to stay in the country after they finish university. International students pay full (non-subsidised) fees and are not eligible for Government financial assistance.

Until 1961 there was only one degree-granting university in New Zealand, the University of New Zealand which had constituent colleges around New Zealand. Now the colleges are independent universities in their own right, and since then two new universities have been created (Auckland University of Technology and Waikato University).

Universities in New Zealand:

Auckland University of Technology (Auckland)
Lincoln University (Lincoln, Canterbury)
Massey University (Palmerston North Auckland, Wellington)
University of Auckland (Auckland)
University of Canterbury (Christchurch)
University of Otago (Dunedin)
University of Waikato (Hamilton)
Victoria University of Wellington (Wellington)

Funding

For tertiary education

Funding for tertiary education in New Zealand is through a combination of government subsidies and student fees. The government funds approved courses by a tuition grant based on the number of enrolled students in each course and the amount of study time each course requires. Courses are rated on an equivalent full-time Student (EFTS) basis. Students enrolled in courses can access Student Loans and Student Allowances to assist with fees and living costs.

Student loans

The Student Loan Scheme is available to all New Zealand permanent residents and can cover course fees, course related expenses and can also provide a weekly living allowance for full time students. The loan must be repaid at a rate dependent on income and repayments are normally recovered via the income tax system by wage deductions. Low income earners and students in full time study can have the interest on their loans written off.

Student Allowances, which are non-refundable grants to students of limited means, are means tested and the weekly amount granted depends on residential and citizenship qualifications, age, location, marital status, dependent children as well as personal, spousal or parental income.

Funding for Tertiary Institutions has been criticised recently due to high fees and funding not keeping pace with costs or inflation. Some also point out that high fees are leading to skills shortages in New Zealand as high costs discourage participation and graduating students seek well paying jobs off shore to pay for their student loans debts. As a result, education funding has been undergoing an ongoing review in recent years.

On 26 July 2005 the Labour Party announced that they would abolish interest on Student Loans, if re-elected at the September election, which they were. From April 2006, the interest component on Student Loans was abolished for students who live in New Zealand.

External links

Education by country | Education in New Zealand

Neuseeländisches Schulsystem | 뉴질랜드의 교육 | 紐西蘭教育

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Education in New Zealand