Erica Stanford and Christopher Luxon make announcement on education
The Government is spending more than $131 million in Budget 26 to enhance mathematics and literacy resources as it pursues improved achievement among young students.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford are making the announcement at a Lower Hutt school. A livestream will be played atthe top of this article.
In a statement, Stanford said the spending would provide “hands-on maths resources and games” for all Year 0-8 classrooms.
It would also fund 36 more maths intervention teachers and help create a new times table and division check for Year 5 students.
In reading and writing, the funding would go towards new curriculum-aligned workbooks, a digital writing tool for all Year 6-8 students, a 12-week structured literacy programme for struggling students and implementing a new Year 2 literacy check.
Stanford’s statement also referenced additional professional learning and development opportunities for teachers.
The Prime Minister and Education Minister will speak this afternoon. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Alongside the funding announcement, Stanford was set to highlight new results from the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study (CIPS). It monitors Year 3, 6 and 8 students’ progress in reading, writing and maths, and is run by the University of Otago and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
The maths results show what is deemed a “statistically significant” increase in Year 6 students meeting or exceeding curriculum expectations. In 2025, this reached 36%, which is up from 30% in 2024 and 28% in 2023.
The Government notes this follows the reform of maths in primary schools. A new structured maths curriculum, resources and professional development for teachers were introduced last year.
The CIPS assessment occurred in Term 4, so about three-and-a-half terms after the reforms began.
“These are still early results and there is a long way to go, but after years of decline, this is encouraging,” Stanford told the Herald earlier.
“We know from the Education Review Office report in October 2025 that 98% of schools had started teaching the refreshed maths curriculum in 2025, and 85% of teachers reported that they had changed how they teach maths,“ she said.
“These results are a testament to the incredible work of teachers and leaders in our school embedding these reforms every day in their classrooms.”
Stanford said the results suggested “we may be starting to head in the right direction”.
“No one is pretending the job is done. Achievement levels are still far below where we want them to be. But seeing statistically significant improvement matters.”
Year 3 and Year 8 results have also improved, however, not to a degree which is deemed “statistically significant”.
One of the Government’s core targets is having 80% of Year 8 students at or above their expected curriculum level for their age in reading, writing and maths by December 2030. This is measured through the CIPS results.
A noteworthy result from the CIPS is that the percentage of Year 3 students more than one year behind curriculum expectations has had a statistically significant change. It’s fallen from 45% in 2023 to 38% in 2025.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.
