The bill amends the Education and Training Act 2020 to make educational achievement school boards' paramount objective, replace existing Treaty of Waitangi provisions with new supporting objectives, increase union strike notice periods, and shift certain teacher standard-setting powers, among other changes.
These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.
This bill amends the Education and Training Act 2020 to make a range of schooling and tertiary changes. Its headline measures reset the objectives of school boards so that raising educational achievement becomes the paramount (highest-priority) objective, with student attendance and the use of quality assessment data as supporting objectives, and it requires schools to put in place attendance management plans to identify and respond to absence. It changes provisions relating to the Treaty of Waitangi, replacing the explicit duty on boards to "give effect to" Te Tiriti with a duty to seek equitable outcomes for Māori students and to provide te reo Māori tuition on request. Other changes strengthen initial teacher education requirements, alter the make-up of the Teaching Council, remove the statutory National Education and Learning Priorities statement, lengthen union notice periods for school strikes, and require universities to uphold and report on freedom of expression and academic freedom.
The bill is a Government bill giving effect to a set of coalition education policies, alongside minor and technical corrections to the 2020 Act. Because it bundles several distinct changes, the arguments differ by topic. Supporters say making achievement the top priority, tackling chronic absence through attendance plans, and raising teacher-training standards will lift declining results and accountability, while the free-speech provisions protect open debate on campuses. Critics argue that downgrading the explicit Treaty duty and removing the National Education and Learning Priorities weaken commitments to equity and to Māori learners; teacher unions have objected to longer strike-notice periods and to giving ministerial appointees greater weight on the Teaching Council, seeing it as reduced professional independence. Some also question whether attendance plans and objective changes address the underlying causes of student disengagement. The overall thrust is stronger central direction on priorities, achievement and attendance.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.