Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Education Ministry's ministerial approval rating has more than doubled.
The ministry's 2025 annual report shows Education Minister Erica Stanford rated the ministry seven out of 10 overall for its oversight of the education system, up from three in the previous report.
However, she gave the ministry only four for its policy advice, up from three.
Vocational education minister Penny Simmonds gave the ministry a rating of seven for its overall performance, up from six the preiovus year.
The report showed a big reduction in the ministry's personnel costs.
The ministry spent $409 million on salaries and wages in 2024/25, down from $555m the previous year.
It spent $2m on consultants, down from $3m the previous year and $138m on contracts for services, down from $180m.
The report showed 52,926 children received specialist learning support in 2024/25 and wait times for support had improved, but remained long.
The average number of days children waited for support were 54 for behaviour support, 80 for communication, 11 for assistance from the ongoing-resourcing scheme, and 117 for the early intervention service.
It showed that only 47 percent of students excluded from a school were placed in another school within 40 days and only 75 percent within 75 days of their exclusion.
"Our regional staff are taking a more active role in following up cases where a learner is not returning to school in a timely manner. This work is being supported with revised guidelines for Stand downs, Suspensions, exclusions and expulsions due to be launched in late 2025," the report said.
The report said the ministry provided buildings for more student places than forecast (126 percent of forecast), and delivered 92 percent of its building projects on budget and 93 percent on time.
It said half of the new and replacement builds in the 2024/25 year were standard or repeatable designs.
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