Recommendation 11 from the 2025 Taskforce chaired by Don Brash deals specifically with education.

11. Education:

a. The substantial increases in subsidies since 2005 for early childhood education and day-care should be reversed.

b. A funder-provider model should be adopted for the school sector, allowing new providers to enter, with all-up per student funding equivalent to that for existing state schools.

c. In the meantime, governance and accountability structures in the school sector need to be reformed to provide better incentives for stronger performance and greater accountability for teachers, principals and schools.

d. Government-imposed fee caps on university fees should be abolished.

e. Market-based interest rates should be reintroduced for student loans.

f. Governance of the public tertiary sector should be reformed, including exploring the rationalisation of the non-university sector and the establishment of universities as independent foundations.

g. A full review should be undertaken to identify, and recommend reform of, those areas in which various government education agencies (Tertiary Education Commission, Education Review Office, Ministry of Education) have become overly prescriptive, and to explore other, less intrusive, monitoring and accountability options to achieve policy ends that pass a cost-benefit test.

 

For further information see the full reports and supporting information from the 2025 Taskforce.

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