Our recommendations

Managing the school property portfolio.

Investing in and maintaining school property is important for creating an effective educational environment for students. To recognise this, we recommend that the Ministry of Education:

  1. fully integrate school property matters with the rest of its functions to recognise the contribution of school property to its educational outcomes. Priority should be given to:
    • aligning its property strategy with other key accountability documents;
    • ensuring that all of its functions support the implementation of the property strategy;
    • having measures showing how investment in, and management of, school property contributes to its educational outcomes; and
    • including property risks in the Ministry-wide risk management framework;
  2. further develop and promote the use of its whole-of-portfolio view of the school property portfolio's condition, to support effective evidence-based investment decisions;
  3. collect information and feedback from schools and property advisors on completed projects so that lessons can be shared, including the educational benefits achieved;
  4. consider the way annual maintenance and renewal funding is allocated to schools so that it responds better to different property types, age, condition, and purpose of buildings;
  5. identify schools not maintaining their property to the required standards, find out why, and establish interventions to remedy the situation;1
  6. with the school sector, more clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the Ministry, principals, and boards of trustees for managing school property and recognise that these may differ between schools;
  7. enhance the relevant training, tools, and support provided to schools to allow them to carry out their property management responsibilities; and
  8. increase the capability and capacity of school property advisors so that frontline services to schools can be improved.

1: This was a recommendation in our 2006 report, Ministry of Education: Management of the school property portfolio (Recommendation 21).