Part 4: The Ministry of Education needs to improve how it uses information
4.1
For the Ministry of Education to effectively respond to inequity in student achievement and progress, it is not enough that it has more information. It also needs to use information well to understand how different factors affect different students.
4.2
The Ministry's knowledge needs to be detailed enough for it to be able to target its initiatives to meet the specific needs of student groups in different subjects.
4.3
We expected the Ministry to:
- understand what factors act as enablers or barriers to achievement and progress, and which enabling factors are the most effective;
- understand which causes of inequity the education system can directly influence and which it cannot;
- have developed, targeted, prioritised, and implemented initiatives based on sound information and analysis;
- share its information with others;
- evaluate its initiatives to ensure that they are effective; and
- bring together all its information to determine what work it should do to address inequity.
4.4
In this Part, we discuss how the Ministry:
- needs a more detailed understanding of inequity;
- needs a more systematic approach to evaluating its initiatives; and
- needs to better use existing information to target and improve its initiatives.
Summary of findings
4.5
In our view, the Ministry does not have a sufficiently detailed understanding of how different factors influence the educational outcomes of specific student groups.
4.6
Because of this, it has limited ability to design, implement, and prioritise initiatives and interventions to support more equitable outcomes. Initiatives are not always targeted to address the particular needs of specific student groups.
4.7
The Ministry could also do more with the information that it has to better identify:
- what factors are having the most significant effects on student achievement and progress at different year levels;
- how these factors interact; and
- how these factors affect different student groups.
4.8
The Ministry also needs to support schools to understand its initiatives and how to use them to help address inequity in student achievement and progress.
4.9
The Ministry's approach to addressing inequity could be stronger if it adopted a planned and systematic approach to evaluating its initiatives. Currently, it is difficult to understand how well initiatives are helping to address inequity in educational outcomes and whether they provide value for money.
4.10
The Ministry could also get more value from existing information, research, and evaluations about inequity. Having a process for bringing all this information together would help the Ministry to better identify what works for students, what is not working, and what needs to change to support more equitable educational outcomes.
A more detailed understanding of inequity would help with developing initiatives
4.11
As discussed in Part 3, the Ministry knows at a broad level that socioeconomic factors can significantly affect student achievement and progress. It also knows that the degree of inequity can vary widely when students are categorised according to broad variables such as ethnicity and gender, and that these variances differ between subjects and school year levels. (See, for example, paragraphs 3.21-3.24, 3.47-3.48, and 3.54.)
4.12
We expected the Ministry to build on this information to develop a more nuanced understanding of inequity. This includes being clear about:
- the specific groups of students who are not meeting achievement or progress expectations;
- how multiple factors can interact and affect those student groups; and
- which factors (or combination of factors) the Ministry and schools can and cannot address.
4.13
This would support the Ministry's efforts to develop initiatives to help schools support students to reach their potential.
The Education System Monitoring Framework is based on the Ministry's current understanding of factors influencing student achievement and progress
4.14
The Ministry's current knowledge about some important factors that influence student achievement and progress informed the development of the Education System Monitoring Framework (the monitoring framework).
4.15
The Ministry introduced the monitoring framework in 2021 to report on the experiences of, and outcomes for, students and whānau throughout the education system. The monitoring framework can also be used to monitor progress against the Statement of National Education and Learning Priorities (see paragraph 2.15).
4.16
The monitoring framework sets out priorities from the Statement of National Education and Learning Priorities, the "topics" that are monitored against those priorities, and the indicators within each topic that are used to measure progress for each priority. The Ministry reports performance against the monitoring framework's indicators annually in the Ngā Ara o te Mātauranga – the pathways of education report series.
4.17
The Ministry used the monitoring study, international comparative studies, and local and international research to identify factors that influence student achievement and progress.
4.18
The monitoring framework reports on topics such as student attendance, students' feeling of safety in school, their sense of belonging, and their educational aspirations. The framework also tracks student achievement and progress against the National Curriculum.
4.19
However, the Ministry acknowledges that limitations in the underlying data limit the amount of detail it can report:
- The indicators for "Achievement against the curriculum" use NCEA achievement for Year 12 and 13 students. For younger students, the Ministry uses results from the monitoring study (replaced by the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study in 2023) because a larger set of achievement data is not available.
- PISA results for 15 year olds are used as indicators for "Literacy, language and numeracy skills progress" and also for students' feeling of safety, their sense of belonging, and their educational aspirations.
4.20
NCEA and PISA results can provide insights for only Year 11-13 students. In our view, to develop initiatives that effectively address inequity the Ministry also needs insights about what factors affect the achievement and progress of younger students.
The Ministry has used available information to prioritise its work programme
4.21
The Ministry has clear priorities for its work programme, including a focus on equity. It clearly set out its priorities in The Statement on National Education and Learning Priorities and, at the time of our audit, the Education Work Programme 2021.
4.22
The priorities in the The Statement on National Education and Learning Priorities and the Education Work Programme 2021 were informed by:
- more than 43,000 public submissions from the Ministry's Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation series;
- targeted engagements and dedicated consultation on various draft strategies; and
- lessons from the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including feedback from schools and students about their experiences.
4.23
The Statement on National Education and Learning Priorities and the Education Work Programme 2021 recognise that inequity must be addressed. A theme from engagement when developing both documents was that although well-being, equity, and inclusion were important for students and their families, the education system was not currently providing this for all students.
4.24
This led the Ministry to say in 2020 that "now, more than ever, it is important that the education system sharpens its focus on equity".14
4.25
This focus was summarised in a paper that sought Cabinet's agreement to the Education Work Programme 2021:
New Zealand's education system performs well for many children and [students], but there are also many who are not served well by our current system, particularly Māori and Pacific [students], those with disabilities and/or learning support needs, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We must do more to address systemic issues, such as falling levels of academic achievement in maths and science, poor and declining rates of attendance, and relatively high levels of exposure to bullying.15
4.26
The Education Work Programme 2021 prioritised initiatives aimed at tackling barriers to educational success. These initiatives were:
- expanding Ka Ora, Ka Ako – Healthy School Lunches Programme (Ka Ora, Ka Ako);
- implementing the Equity Index for schools and early learning services;
- improving digital access to help address the digital divide in schools;
- providing free period products in schools; and
- continuing to implement the Learning Support Action Plan 2019-25.
The Ministry of Education has designed initiatives that respond to some factors that can prevent students reaching their potential
4.27
As part of our audit, we looked at some of the Ministry's initiatives to address educational inequity. We found that the Ministry used its understanding of inequity to respond to some broad factors that it knows affect educational outcomes, such as socioeconomic status.
The Equity Index
4.28
Equity-based funding has been a feature of the education system for several decades. It is a response to the recognition that socioeconomic factors can be barriers to student achievement and progress. Until recently, the Ministry used the decile system to deliver funding to schools according to the socioeconomic status of their students.
4.29
The Equity Index was implemented in 2023 and replaces the decile system. It is a statistical model that estimates whether students face socioeconomic barriers to achievement at school and the extent of those barriers. Every primary and secondary school is assigned a score that determines how much additional funding they receive each year on top of their core funding.
4.30
Equity funding is provided on a per-student basis. For 2023, the equity funding range was $0 (for schools whose students have the lowest socioeconomic barriers) to $1029.03 per student (for schools with the highest socioeconomic barriers). This extra funding is on average about 3% of all schools' annual funding.
4.31
To produce the scores, the model measures relationships between educational achievement and socioeconomic variables.
4.32
The Ministry reviewed international research to identify variables that affect educational achievement that it could test in New Zealand. It then analysed data from the Integrated Data Infrastructure to narrow these down to 37 different significant variables that correlated with educational achievement.16
4.33
The Ministry divided the 37 variables into four types of measure. These are:
- parental socioeconomic indicators, including details of parental income, parents' age at a child's birth, and parental contact with the justice system (such as community or custodial sentences);
- child socioeconomic indicators, including contact with care and protection services or the youth justice system;
- national background, including ethnicity, country of birth, migrant category, and age at first arrival in New Zealand; and
- transience, including how often a student has changed homes and schools.
4.34
The model looks at the relationships between these variables and educational achievement from a sample population and applies that understanding to the current student population in primary and secondary education.
4.35
The model generates a value for each school that reflects the average of information about the school's population. That value determines each school's share of Equity Index funding. Because Statistics New Zealand regularly updates the Integrated Data Infrastructure database, the Ministry can update schools' scores every year.
4.36
The Ministry used available information and research to develop the Equity Index. In doing this, the Ministry has gained a deeper understanding of which socioeconomic factors are closely correlated with student achievement and progress, and the relative importance of those factors.
The Attendance and Engagement Strategy
4.37
The Ministry released the Attendance and Engagement Strategy in 2022 in response to a decline in regular attendance and engagement in schools. It developed the strategy using attendance data from schools and research about the relationship between student attendance and engagement and achievement.
4.38
The strategy was also informed by the Ministry's Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation series and by community knowledge provided to the Education and Workforce Committee Inquiry into school attendance.17
4.39
The strategy states that:
Some factors lie within the education system such as school culture and inclusiveness, having locally responsive curriculum, supporting well-being and mental health, and having strong relationships with [students], whānau, iwi, hapū, and community.18
4.40
External influences include broader societal issues such as housing affordability and security, family violence, and poverty. These issues go beyond the education system and need a collective effort at a local level to connect whānau and students with the supports they need to address out-of-school factors.
4.41
In April 2024, the Associate Minister for Education announced an attendance action plan and further proposals to improve attendance. A media release indicated that the Minister would put further proposals to Cabinet, including "using improved data and analysis to distinguish the drivers of non-attendance and targeting interventions".19
Ka Ora, Ka Ako, the Loss of Learning initiative, and the Literacy & Communication and Maths Strategy
4.42
We looked at some initiatives that the Ministry described as having a focus on addressing inequity. We were interested in how the Ministry used information to develop these initiatives, which included:
- Ka Ora, Ka Ako, which is intended to reduce food insecurity by providing students with a nutritious lunch to support their development and learning;
- the Loss of Learning initiative, which was intended to address the effects of school closures and staff and student illness caused by the Covid-19 pandemic; and
- the Literacy & Communication and Maths Strategy, which is intended to create a cohesive teaching and learning pathway from early learning to the end of secondary schooling.
4.43
Ka Ora, Ka Ako is a response to food insecurity affecting the "25 per cent of children and young people nationwide in the schools with the highest concentrations of disadvantage".20 The programme provides free school lunches to about 25% of all Year 1-13 students.
4.44
In May 2024, the programme was active in 1013 schools and provided lunch to more than 236,000 students. The Ministry is responsible for implementing and running the programme.
4.45
Development of this programme began in 2018 with work that the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet did to understand the impact of food insecurity on education. In June 2019, Cabinet agreed to a proposal from the Minister for Education, the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction, and the Minister for Children to fund a prototype programme to supply free and healthy school lunches.
4.46
In May 2020, Cabinet agreed to extend the programme to include 25% of school children in lower socioeconomic areas. The Ministry used the Equity Index to identify the relevant schools.
4.47
The Ministry spent two years investigating the issues that students face in learning literacy and communication and maths, and identified opportunities for improvement.21
4.48
The Ministry made good use of this information to develop the Literacy & Communication and Maths Strategy, which aims to reverse declining student achievement levels.
4.49
It also prepared a corresponding strategy, Hei Raukura Mō te Mokopuna, for te reo matatini and pāngarau.
4.50
We heard positive comments about how the Ministry worked with schools to develop the Loss of Learning initiative. This initiative was a response to learning being disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. These disruptions included school closures, staff and student illness, and lockdown periods. The initiative focused on students in Years 7-13.
4.51
The Ministry was asked to advise on how to best manage the effects of disrupted education on students. To understand how disruptions affected student achievement and progress, the Ministry used data from the Assessment for Teaching and Learning tool and NCEA results. It also sought information from the Education Review Office about its observations.
4.52
The Ministry recognised that existing information about disrupted learning from New Zealand was limited. In response, it looked at what other countries were doing and worked with schools to produce advice to Ministers about:
- the effect of the pandemic on students' education; and
- how the initiative could help reduce the effects of a disrupted education.
The Ministry needs a more nuanced understanding of inequity
4.53
The initiatives we looked at were high-level responses to some broad factors that can influence educational outcomes. They mostly aim to compensate for the effects of socioeconomic factors that exist outside of schools.
4.54
Although these are important factors that need to be addressed, we saw less evidence that the Ministry can respond to the particular needs of specific student groups.
4.55
In our view, this is because the Ministry does not have enough information to develop a nuanced understanding of what factors contribute to inequity and which students are most affected. This limits the Ministry's ability to help schools support these students to reach their full potential.
4.56
The Ministry knows that there are wide variations in student achievement between some broadly defined student groups. For example, there are long-standing disparities between girls and boys in different subjects, for students in lower socioeconomic areas, and for Māori and Pacific students.
4.57
However, it is also clear that some students that belong to these broadly defined student groups are reaching their potential:
- There are girls who are high achievers in maths and boys who are high achievers in reading.
- The 2022 PISA results for New Zealand found that 9% of students with the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds achieved excellent results in maths.
- In 2020, 64% of Māori students in Māori-medium education left school with NCEA Level 3 or above, compared to 59% for all school leavers (see Figure 4).
4.58
We saw less evidence that the Ministry is able to explain what factors (or combination of factors) enable some students to reach their potential while others in similar situations struggle. This includes both in-school and out-of-school factors.
4.59
This problem is partly to do with the limitations in the information available (see Part 3). However, it might also reflect disagreement within the Ministry and between the Ministry and schools about what factors affecting student achievement and progress are the most important.
4.60
In our interviews, there were no consistent views about what the important causes of inequity are, how they interact, and how they affect different student groups. There was uncertainty about whether the Ministry's initiatives address the most important causes of inequity. The Ministry described this lack of consensus as a "competition of ideas" about how best to respond to educational inequity.
4.61
In our view, the Ministry has an important role in helping the education system to reach consensus about what the most important factors that affect students are. This includes in-school and out-of-school factors.
4.62
Without a common understanding, there cannot be clarity about what the Ministry, schools, and other public organisations could be doing to support more equitable educational outcomes for students. Developing a better picture of how different factors interact and affect educational outcomes would help to support system-wide action to address inequity.
4.63
The Ministry could also do more to systematically analyse the information that it currently has about educational outcomes.
4.64
The Ministry needs to bring together results from studies on student achievement and progress and analyse them alongside research about what factors can influence student achievement and progress.
4.65
The Ministry could use the results of this analysis to better design and target its responses. It could also use those results to better influence other public organisations to address factors that are outside the control of the Ministry or schools.
4.66
At a regional level, the Ministry could better support schools to identify variations in their students' educational outcomes and what factors have a particular influence on those outcomes. Schools can then identify:
- factors that the Ministry and schools can influence and factors that require collaboration with other public organisations to address;
- what schools in a region could do collectively to reduce any variation in educational achievement; and
- whether a national-level response is needed.
4.67
This would also help the Ministry and other public organisations, where relevant, to ensure that a full range of strategies, programmes, and initiatives consistently addresses the most important factors affecting educational equity.
4.68
It also means that other parties (such as other education organisations, schools, parents, whānau, and parties representing student groups with inequitable achievement levels) can comment on the Ministry's view of the key factors, including whether the Ministry's view includes matters that are important to them.
4.69
In turn, this can point the Ministry to potential solutions and areas that it needs to investigate further.
| Recommendation 3 |
|---|
We recommend that the Ministry of Education regularly analyse the information available about student achievement and progress alongside research about the factors influencing educational outcomes to develop more detailed knowledge of:
|
The Ministry needs to better explain how its initiatives promote equity
4.70
In Part 2, we discussed the need for the Ministry and schools to collaborate to improve the information the Ministry has about student achievement and progress. The relationships between the Ministry and schools are also fundamental to the success of initiatives to promote equitable educational outcomes.
4.71
Principals are responsible for leading the teaching and learning process in schools. This includes bringing together information about good teaching practices and other resources to improve the quality of education in their school. This responsibility includes improving equity.
4.72
A principal's ability to do this relies, in part, on clearly understanding the intent of the Ministry's initiatives and how they relate to their students. Principals need to know what tools are available, how they are intended to support student achievement or progress, and how they should be used.
4.73
In our interviews, principals told us that it was not always clear why the Ministry had developed or prioritised an initiative, what its aims were, or how their students might benefit from it.
4.74
Part of the issue was the amount of information that the Ministry gave principals. The Ministry sends regular bulletins to school principals, which include:
- access to research and other evaluative information;
- guidance or summaries that distil key findings from studies and evaluations;
- information about the Ministry's reviews of different aspects of the education system;
- information about new and existing initiatives; and
- requests for submissions on draft documents or for staff time to help develop initiatives by participating in working groups.
4.75
Principals told us that the amount of information that the Ministry sends them, combined with a busy workload, limited their ability to consider and apply the information.
4.76
During our audit, the Ministry was considering how to provide principals with more support to consider and apply the information it sends out. It was aware that it could do more to help schools. This includes support to help principals:
- understand why it has introduced an initiative;
- identify whether new initiatives are relevant to them (for example, schools with high attendance and engagement may get greater benefits from focusing on other initiatives than the Attendance and Engagement Strategy); and
- implement initiatives effectively.
4.77
We consider that implementing Recommendations 1 and 2 would help the Ministry improve principals' ability to apply initiatives to their schools.
4.78
The relationships needed to effectively share information about student achievement and progress would also help the Ministry to better communicate the purpose and importance of its initiatives.
4.79
This would help schools to address the factors of inequity that are within the education system's ability to influence.
4.80
In addition, the Ministry could use these relationships to collect real-time feedback on how well schools are implementing its initiatives, how different initiatives are working as a package, and whether they are supporting students as intended.
4.81
This would provide the Ministry with valuable insights and information that it could use to refine how initiatives work, how they are implemented, and how they are prioritised.
The Ministry of Education needs a systematic approach to evaluating its initiatives
4.82
Evaluating the Ministry's initiatives is important to understanding whether they are helping to lift achievement and address inequity. Evaluations could highlight opportunities to improve or expand an initiative, or conclude that an initiative should be stopped because it is not effective.
4.83
We expected the Ministry to have a systematic approach to evaluating initiatives. We looked at the Ministry's:
- evaluation plans for Ka Ora, Ka Ako, the Loss of Learning initiative, and the Literacy & Communication and Maths Strategy; and
- overall approach to evaluating initiatives.
The Ministry will evaluate the three initiatives we looked at
4.84
The Ministry intends to evaluate all three initiatives we looked at. During our audit, it had already completed evaluations for Ka Ora, Ka Ako.
4.85
The Ministry used early evaluations of Ka Ora, Ka Ako to improve the initiative and to assess its effectiveness for Māori students. There were evaluations of:
- the early impact of the pilot programme;
- the nutritional value of the lunches; and
- how Ka Ora, Ka Ako contributes to the hauora and well-being of Māori students.
4.86
The evaluations found many positive results from the programme. For secondary school students, these included increased mental well-being, improved energy and ability to carry out physical activity, and improved ability to pay attention and keep up in school.
4.87
The kaupapa Māori evaluation found that the programme had improved students' behaviour and attitudes, their ability to concentrate and engage with class material, their enjoyment of learning, and their confidence.
4.88
The Ministry used the results of the evaluations to support expanding the initiative to include more schools. The evaluations also led to the Ministry:
- updating the programme's nutrition standards; and
- introducing two new models for delivering the initiative (by schools instead of third parties and through a model that supports partnership between schools and iwi and hapū).
4.89
The Ministry also told us that it intends to evaluate the effectiveness of the Literacy & Communication and Maths Strategy and the Loss of Learning initiative.
The Ministry needs a more structured approach to evaluations
4.90
Overall, we found that the Ministry does not have a systematic or planned approach to evaluating its initiatives. It does not have an evaluation strategy or documented guidance setting out the criteria for deciding which initiatives should be evaluated and when.
4.91
The Ministry does not have a central budget for evaluating its initiatives that responsible managers can access. Instead, each part of the Ministry decides which initiatives it will evaluate using its available funding.
4.92
We were told that, in most instances, funding for evaluating initiatives is sought when funding bids for new initiatives are put up.
4.93
Currently, the Ministry does not have a planned approach to evaluation, and there is no central oversight of what initiatives are being evaluated, what initiatives are overdue for evaluation, and what initiatives have never been evaluated.
4.94
As a result, it is difficult to know how some of the Ministry's initiatives are helping to lift student achievement and address inequity. Because of this, the main way of assessing their combined effectiveness is from studies (such as the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study) and PISA and NCEA results.
4.95
The Ministry told us that it is developing an evaluation action plan to identify whether initiatives are well targeted and delivering the expected outcomes.
4.96
We expect the action plan to include a framework for deciding which initiatives are evaluated, how these evaluations are organised and resourced, and how value for money should be assessed. Where practical, the Ministry should find ways to actively involve schools, students, and communities in evaluating its initiatives, and share its findings with the wider public.
4.97
The action plan should also include arrangements for providing central oversight of all the Ministry's evaluations. Central oversight of evaluations would enable the Ministry to assess how well its action plan is being implemented.
| Recommendation 4 |
|---|
| We recommend that the Ministry of Education implement a more structured approach to evaluating its strategies, programmes, and initiatives that sets out what is evaluated and why, how evaluations are organised and resourced, and how results will be shared within the Ministry and with education organisations and the public. |
The Ministry of Education needs comprehensive information to better target initiatives
4.98
In this report, we have described why we consider it important for the Ministry to bring together the information that it currently has about student achievement and progress and to analyse this alongside research about factors that affect educational outcomes. We also expected the Ministry to have a process for bringing that information together with the results of all its evaluation activity.
4.99
Bringing together this information would help the Ministry to see how it could improve its efforts to address educational inequity. This could be a powerful tool for further targeting and prioritising these efforts.
4.100
The Ministry used to bring information together in this way. In the past, the Ministry used the Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme to systematically identify, evaluate, and make accessible evidence about improving student achievement and progress.
4.101
However, the Ministry does not do this currently. We consider that, without such an approach, the Ministry will struggle to get all the value it could from its efforts to improve student achievement and progress and address inequity.
4.102
The Ministry, schools, and other public organisations would all benefit from the Ministry regularly bringing its information together to update and refine its understanding of how best to improve student achievement and progress and address inequity.
4.103
This includes evaluations of its initiatives and, in time, improved information about student achievement and progress and the results of its improved information-sharing with schools. This would give decision-makers greater clarity about:
- which groups of students a proposed initiative is targeting;
- the inequity that an initiative is intended to address; and
- the intended effect of the proposed initiatives.
4.104
Regularly bringing together information would help the Ministry to base its initiatives on the strongest evidence available and ensure that initiatives address the most important causes of inequity.
4.105
In our view, the Ministry should also provide school principals with its assessment of that evidence – for example, which individual studies are reliable and what the weight of evidence shows is effective.
4.106
The Ministry could also provide principals with easy-to-apply advice or guidance on how to use the insights to promote equity.
| Recommendation 5 |
|---|
| We recommend that the Ministry of Education regularly bring together information from evaluations of the Ministry's initiatives with assessments of research on improving achievement and addressing inequity, and use the results to inform refinements to the design, targeting, and prioritisation of initiatives aimed at addressing inequity. |
Improvements are urgently needed to address growing inequity in achievement and progress
4.107
The Ministry told us that it broadly agrees with our findings, conclusions, and recommendations. It acknowledged that its current approaches to receiving, managing, and using information about inequity in student achievement and progress are not working as well as they need to be.
4.108
The Ministry said that addressing the shortcomings in how it collects and uses information is a strategic priority. It also said that policy context and settings affect the information that is available, and would affect how quickly and comprehensively it can act on our conclusions and recommendations. This includes the challenge of seeking more consistent and detailed information from schools.
4.109
We acknowledge the Ministry's concerns and that it might take some time to implement our recommendations. However, we think it is important work to prioritise to support the Ministry's ability to act as steward of the education system and provide better support to schools.
14: Cabinet paper (2020), Shaping a Stronger Education System with New Zealanders: Finalising the NELP and TES, page 2, at education.govt.nz.
15: Cabinet paper (2021), Education Work Programme 2021, page 1, at education.govt.nz.
16: The Integrated Data Infrastructure is a large research database that Statistics New Zealand developed and manages.
17: Education and Workforce Committee (March 2022), Inquiry into school attendance, at selectcommittees.parliament.nz.
18: Ministry of Education (2022), Attendance and Engagement Strategy, page 6, at education.govt.nz.
19: Media release (2024), "Attendance action plan to lift student attendance rates", at beehive.govt.nz.
20: See "Cabinet paper: Continuing the Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy school lunches programme" (dated 22 March 2021) at education.govt.nz.
21: Ministry of Education (2022), Insights that informed the Literacy & Communication and Maths Strategy, at education.govt.nz.