$30 million injection for new classrooms at integrated schools

Education Minister Erica Stanford said state-integrated schools play an important part of the system, and the Government was ensuring they had the support to meet growing demand. She made the announcement at Sacred Heart Cathedral School, a Catholic school across the road from Parliament, on July 24.

“It’s something that’s been a long time coming. We are a Government that is interested in choice in education,” she said.

“We know that there is a huge demand for state integrated schools like the one that we’re at today, and there hasn’t been a huge amount of money that has been made available for property for these schools. In fact, the last injection was in 2019, and it was only $6 million.”

The $30 million will be phased in over four years, and was expected to mean state-integrated schools could take on 1250 more students. Ms Stanford said the funding approach was different from the usual, but the money would come from the new build package in the 2025 Budget. 

“We’ve done things slightly differently this time where we are saying to school boards ‘we’re going to make the funds available to you so that we can use capital funding’,” she said.

“It’s the money that we’ve set aside in the Budget to increase student numbers for state integrated schools.”

Association of Proprietors of Integrated Schools (APIS) chief executive Dr Kein Shore thanked Ms Stanford for prioritising these funds in the 2025/26 Budget. APIS has been in negotiation with the Minister about this funding for the last 12 months, he said.

“It is important to acknowledge her efforts on our behalf in what we know is a very tight fiscal situation,” Dr Shore said.

This funding is not a universal fund where every proprietor will be guaranteed to get a share of these funds, he added. The funds will be allocated by the Ministry of Education according to how the proprietor application meets the priorities that will be set by the Minister and her team at the Ministry of Education.

Before the announcement, APIS was not aware of the eligibility and prioritisation criteria mentioned by the Minister, such as attendance, achievement rates and pressure on the school roll. The Minister also mentioned that state integrated schools requesting a high level of donations may be given a lower priority for State Integrated Growth Investment funding, Dr Shore noted.

“This was a surprise, but is consistent with some of her conversations with APIS in recent times, where she has expressed her concern regarding state integrated schools which request large donations from their school community,” he said.

SIGI funding will be delivered directly to state integrated school boards who will then retain ownership of these new buildings.

APIS will now negotiate with the Ministry of Education on “the various policies, processes and application format that will be needed to ensure these funds are used in our best interests”, Dr Shore said.

FULL STORY

Education Minister announces $30m to be put towards new classrooms at state-integrated schools | RNZ News (By Russell Palmer/Radio New Zealand)

Education Minister Announces $30m To Be Put Towards New Classrooms At State Integrated Schools (APIS)