Strategic Direction
The New Zealand education system leads the world in many areas and performs well for most students. However, it does not fully meet the needs of some students, including a disproportionate number of Māori and Pasifika students, students from poorer communities and students with disabilities or special education needs. By lifting achievement for these students, the overall performance of the education system will improve.
For 2009/10 the Government has identified six priority outcomes on which the Ministry of Education will focus its resources and funding. These are outlined below:
The Chief Executives of all six government education agencies are committed to collective strategic leadership to ensure that priority outcomes for education are achieved2. The priority outcomes inform the operating intentions of each agency, with more specific direction, focus and performance measures provided through Letters of Expectation and dialogue between individual Chief Executives and Ministers.
The six education agencies are:
- Ministry of Education.
- Education Review Office.
- Career Services.
- New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
- New Zealand Teachers Council.
- Tertiary Education Commission.
The Ministry leads and participates in a number of sector and cross-government forums, ensuring that education’s contribution is linked to wider social and economic outcomes. As an example, the education agencies collaborate with the National Library, The Correspondence School and the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, to develop and use information and communications technologies (ICT) across the education sector.
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Achieving success and measuring progress:
The Ministry will be guided in how best to ensure educational achievement for every student by:
- using new and emerging data and evidence: national and international studies such as PISA, PIRLS and NEMP3, and research such as Best Evidence Synthesis
- building and using an evidence base of best practice models for our specialist services such as Early Intervention, speech language therapy and behaviour services
- learning from successful programmes that have been shown to have a positive impact on education outcomes: Te Kotahitanga, Assess-to-Learn, the Literacy Professional Development Project and Numeracy projects
- using existing frameworks and strategies: Ka Hikitia – Managing for Success, the Pasifika Education Plan, and the New Zealand Disability Strategy
- obtaining feedback from students, parents and education providers.
The Ministry has identified a number of system-level indicators to help track progress for the priority outcomes in the long term. Some of these indicators are only updated on a four- or five-year cycle but provide a useful picture of how New Zealand students compare internationally. We have identified medium-term performance measures to monitor Ministry progress on each priority outcome. Performance in these areas will have an effect on system-level indicators, but in some cases the direct causal relationship will be difficult to assess. In the coming year, further work will improve and refine the measures. A summary of the indicators we will use is provided in the table below.
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| Priority outcomes |
Measure of success |
Ministry actions |
| Every child has the opportunity to participate in high quality early childhood education |
- The proportion of children from targeted groups attending high quality early childhood education rising to levels consistent with the general population
- Increases in the consistency and length of attendance in early childhood education for children from target groups
- Fewer children starting primary school with previously unidentified and unsupported special education needs
|
- Targeting for participation
|
| Every child achieves literacy and numeracy levels that enable their success |
- Every child making progress to reach National Standards, regardless of where they go to school, their ethnicity, if they have a disability or have special education needs
- Teachers, principals and schools responding more quickly and effectively to the learning needs of students who are not achieving
- Greater levels of understanding and participation among parents in working with the teacher and their child to support the child's literacy and numeracy
|
- Implementing National Standards
- Supporting effective teaching
- Ensuring parents are informed and involved
|
| Every young person has the skills and qualifications to contribute to their and New Zealand's future |
- Increased student engagement and retention in education for target groups
- Fewer young people from target groups leaving education without worthwhile qualifications
- Reduced numbers of young people who are not in education, training or employment
|
- Developing a Workforce Strategy
- Using support and interventions better
- Advancing the Youth Guarantee
- Improving secondary-tertiary transitions
- Developing a 21st-century school infrastructure
|
| Relevant and efficient tertiary education provision that meets student and labour market needs |
- New Zealand maintaining comparability with other OECD countries on a set of indicators for high quality tertiary education
- Greater levels of achievement for those learners who are currently leaving school without level 2 NCEA
- Increased numbers of students from target groups completing tertiary qualifications at higher levels
- Tertiary education providers working in partnership with industry and employers
- Ongoing increases in the levels of student achievement per dollar invested in tertiary education
- Increasing numbers of international students and higher quality links between New Zealand and foreign tertiary and research providers
|
- Providing strategic tertiary education advice
- Researching, monitoring and evaluating the performance of tertiary education
- Providing strategic policy advice and support for international education
|
| Māori enjoying education success as Māori |
- Māori students achieving their potential through education
- Policy development and implementation tailored to Māori needs and approaches
- Increasing numbers of high quality te reo teachers entering the teaching profession
|
- Supporting high quality teaching for Māori
- Increasing accountability for Māori achievement
- Supporting the Māori-medium network
- Ensuring informed decision-making
|
| The Ministry is capable, efficient and responsive to achieve education priorities |
- The Ministry's efforts concentrated on effective targeting of interventions and levers in order to bring about system change
- Ongoing efficiencies in Ministry expenditure and greater assurance of cost benefits on significant expenditure
- Effective use of evidence in policy development
- A better integration of policy advice, operational policy and implementation
- Ministers and central agencies expressing confidence in the Ministry's advice
|
- Improving value for money
- Increasing internal efficiencies
- Improving responsiveness
- Reducing compliance costs
|
- The priority outcome ‘The Ministry is capable, efficient and responsive to achieve education priorities’ relates solely to the Ministry of Education.
- Refer to Glossary