Auditor-General's overview

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangarangatanga maha o te motu, tēnā koutou.

A well-educated population has enormous personal, societal, and economic benefits. Because of this, New Zealand invests significant public resources in primary and secondary education. In 2023/24, primary and secondary education received about $8.5 billion of public funding. Therefore, it is important that this money helps all students to meet their potential.

The role of the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) includes supporting schools to provide quality education to all their students. As part of this support, the Ministry develops strategies, programmes, and initiatives that are intended to lift achievement levels and improve equity in educational outcomes.

Improving equity means that each student's educational outcomes reflect their abilities, rather than reflecting circumstances outside their control.

Although many students reach or exceed achievement expectations, some recent studies have shown declining student achievement in maths, science, and literacy. This trend is also seen in other developed countries.

For example, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a significant international study that assesses 15 year olds' proficiency in maths, reading, and science. The 2022 PISA assessment saw, on average, a drop in performance throughout the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that can only partially be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic. Scores in reading and science had already been falling before the pandemic, and negative trends in maths performance were apparent in several countries before 2018.

In international comparisons, New Zealand students continue to perform, on average, similarly to or better than their peers in OECD countries. However, local and international research shows that the gap in student achievement between New Zealand students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds is greater than the gap in many other countries. Therefore, addressing this gap is key to improving educational outcomes.

To improve equity, the Ministry needs access to high-quality information to be able to identify which student groups have inequitable educational outcomes and what factors affect their achievement and progress. I wanted to understand whether the Ministry uses comprehensive, current, reliable, and relevant information to inform its approach to promoting equitable educational outcomes in Years 1-13.

What we found

There are gaps in the Ministry's information about student achievement and progress

There is no comprehensive and authoritative summary of student achievement and progress in New Zealand.

In addition, the information that the Ministry has is more detailed for some students than for others. For example, National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) results provide consistent information about students in Years 11-13. However, there are gaps in the Ministry's information about student achievement and progress in Years 1-10.

The Ministry is aware of this. It recognises that has limited information about the:

• achievement or progress of students in Māori-medium education before NCEA;
• achievement or progress of students with disabilities and those with additional learning needs;
• abilities of new entrants (children starting their schooling); and
• effects of student transitions, such as the move from primary to secondary school.

Despite these gaps, the Ministry has used the information that it currently has to form a general understanding of some significant factors that affect student achievement and progress.

For example, the Ministry knows that many students not meeting achievement and progress expectations are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Many of those students are Māori or Pacific students, or students with disabilities. Data also shows differences in girls' and boys' achievement in different subjects in both primary and secondary education.

The Ministry has used this knowledge to develop initiatives aimed at supporting more equitable outcomes. These include developing an equity index to allocate additional funding to schools, a programme that provides lunch to some students, and initiatives intended to increase attendance and to reverse declining achievement in maths and literacy.

The Government recently announced that from 2025 schools will be required to carry out standardised testing in reading, writing, and maths for children in Years 3-8 twice a year. This means that the Ministry will be able to draw on more information to understand student achievement and progress.

However, the Ministry's knowledge of factors that affect student achievement and progress is not detailed enough to ensure that all initiatives are well targeted. For example, the Ministry has a limited understanding of why some students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are able to reach their potential while other students in those circumstances struggle.

All parts of the system need to work together to better understand inequity in education

To support equitable educational outcomes, all parts of the education system need to understand in detail the inequity that exists. They also need to know what factors influence the achievement and progress of students affected by inequity. This is essential for schools to help students who most need support in the right ways and at the right times.

To form a more detailed understanding, the Ministry will need to work closely with schools and others in the education system (such as the Education Review Office and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research) to develop a plan for collecting more in-depth information about where inequity is occurring and what factors affect student achievement and progress.

In my view, the Ministry also needs a more systematic approach to evaluating its initiatives. This would help it to know how to improve them or whether it needs to change priorities. The Ministry does not currently have a planned approach to evaluation, and there is no central oversight of what initiatives are being evaluated, what initiatives are due for evaluation, and what initiatives have never been evaluated.

The Ministry also has opportunities to involve schools and teachers more when developing initiatives and to work with schools to ensure that they understand how initiatives can help them meet their students' needs.

Action is needed

Currently, students that could benefit the most from improved educational outcomes are those least likely to reach their educational potential. This includes students in lower socioeconomic communities, many of whom are Māori and Pacific students. The Ministry needs to improve its information so that it can improve support for schools and better target initiatives to address inequity.

Some factors that affect student achievement are outside the Ministry's direct control. During this audit, my auditors heard that some schools spend a lot of time dealing with the effects of poverty. Some students are dealing with homelessness, overcrowded housing, a lack of clothing, or a lack of food. Some schools are helping students with serious issues, including mental illness, drug and alcohol issues, family violence, and transience.

A much wider response from the public sector is needed to address these types of challenges.

I have made five recommendations to help improve the information that the Ministry collects and its analysis of that information. Addressing these recommendations will help the Ministry to better support schools to meet the needs of all their students.

The Ministry has indicated that it broadly agrees with this report's findings and recommendations. It told us that work is under way to address some of them. This includes:

• working with others in the education system to assess the effectiveness of curriculum and assessment practices in schools;
• developing an evaluation action plan to help identify whether programmes are well targeted and delivering expected outcomes; and
• working with social sector Ministers to identify opportunities to use education data to reduce the number of students who are not in employment, education, or training.

Work to address our recommendations will also assist the Ministry in meeting the Government's priorities for education, which were announced in April 2024. These include implementing consistent modes of monitoring student achievement and progress, targeting interventions for students with additional needs, and using data and evidence to drive consistent improvement in achievement.

During my audit, the Ministry was involved in several significant change programmes. I thank staff from the Ministry for their support and co-operation during these challenging times.

I also thank staff from schools and other education organisations for sharing their views and perspectives with my audit team.

Nāku noa, nā

John Ryan
Controller and Auditor-General | Tumuaki o te Mana Arotake

2 October 2024