Introduction

New Zealand education system is based on the British education system. There are three parts of New Zealand education system which are early childhood education, compulsory schooling, and tertiary education. Primary education generally commences at 5 years of age and ends in the eleventh year. Compulsory schooling includes primary school, intermediate school, and secondary school. Education is free at state-funded schools until the completion of secondary school.

Early Reforms and Their Impact

New Zealand took initial steps in 1987 to reform its educational system. Educational reform was part of the overall plan to restructure entire social, political, and economic systems. The reforms failed to achieve its objective of preparing students for the growing competition in the global markets.  Later studies identified four crucial issues that negatively impacted the quality of education in the aftermath of the reforms. The first was due to decentralization that happened at schools as result of reforms and left school principals with less authority. In addition, principals’ workload increased and their focus shifted from leadership to managerial tasks. The second factor was the deterioration in the quality of instruction due to heavier course loads, rapid learning curves for teachers, declining wages, and loss of autonomy. The third factor was the withdrawal of special education services from the schools. The fourth factor was cuts to the Education Review Office that monitored the quality of education (Novlan, 1998).

Current State

The secondary education system is faced with aging teaching staff and the average age of a teacher is 49 years. The teaching profession is faced with shortage of quality teachers which has contributed towards the declining quality of workers entering the labor market. There is also a growing achievement gap between students and New Zealand has one of the poorest rankings for ‘bottom end inequality’ which measures ‘the extent of the difference in achievement between children at the bottom and at the middle of each country’s achievement range.’ New Zealand has also done a poor job of incorporating the ethnic Maori population in the mainstream culture. In 2001, one-third of Maori and one-quarter of Pacific Island students versus the national average of 17% didn’t complete their high school education (Morris, 2005). The quality of education at state schools has also declined due to greater intervention by the government in school affairs. School charters have been abolished to be replaced with compliance demands that have shifted the focus from learning based education to rote-learning. To some extent, many of the problems are similar to those raised by the ‘No Child Left Behind’ in the U.S. where the government goes for ‘one-size fits all’ policy and the standard of schools is measured by quantitative factors rather than qualitative factors.

Statistics

There are approximately 440 secondary schools in New Zealand. Tertiary education sector includes 8 universities, 24 polytechnics, and 4 colleges of education (Lakes District Health Board). According to an advocacy group Independent Schools New Zealand, approximately 86% of all school-aged children go to state schools, 10% to state integrated schools, and only 4% go to private schools. A unique feature of New Zealand education system is that even private schools receive up to a quarter of their funding from the state (New-Nealand-NZ.net). Since 1994, education spending has grown at an average rate of 7.2% per year. In 2009, the government spent $11.5 billion NZ dollars on education which was about 6.4% of the GDP. Early childhood education received a funding of about 10% of the total, primary and secondary education about 45% of the total, tertiary education which includes college and university education received 40% of the total, and the rest 5% went towards departmental and other expenses. After accounting for participation growth and inflation, education spending per student has increased by around 27% since 2001 (The Treasury, Government of New Zealand).

Future Challenges

New Zealand will have to invest more in education and training. 80 percent of the people who will be in workforce in about ten years are already in the workforce. The aging population means New Zealand must invest more in education to ensure a high graduation rates among the secondary school students to address some of the high skilled labor shortage. New Zealand should also invest more in its Maori population. Maori are expected to be an increasing portion of young and working age New Zealanders in the twenty-first century (Ministry of Economic Development, Manatu Ohanga).