Background

Unmet needs in New Zealand’s secondary education system are growing, especially in relation to student wellbeing, learning support, teacher workload, and equitable access to education. PPTA Te Wehengarua calls on the Ministry of Education and government to commit to resourcing a truly inclusive, adequately staffed, and future-ready education system.  

PPTA Te Wehengarua activity is guided by a constitution which includes the objectives: To advance the cause of education generally…and to affirm and advance Te Tiriti O Waitangi. PPTA Te Wehengarua is committed to a partnership between tauiwi and tangata whenua, which affirms Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

This paper does not focus on the compounded and intersecting inequities experienced by whānau Māori, Pasifika, and migrant families through the lens of intersectionality, but it is grounded in our broader kaupapa which acknowledges that these layered injustices exist and must be addressed with urgency and cultural responsiveness. The ‘Social Model of Disability “recognises that the impairment[s] disabling a person [are] the barriers created by an inaccessible society” and this is amplified by structural racism and the effects of colonisation.

New Zealand’s education system is founded on the principle that every young person has the right to equitable access to quality education. Yet growing disparities, staffing shortages, increasing student complexity, and inadequate support structures are undermining this principle. 

Unmet need is no longer a marginal issue; it is a systemic crisis affecting teachers, students, and school communities. Providing support for vulnerable students, including those with mental health issues, is identified as the top-ranking issue facing schools.

The 2025 Education Budget failed to address the scale of the problem. It provided minimal funding increases for learning support, neglected to boost base staffing, and did not commit to a long-term plan for system reform. The reliance on initiatives such as "Teaching the Basics Brilliantly" is a very narrow focus for schools and prioritises standardised outcomes over diverse learning needs and community-responsive education.

There has been an attempt to manufacture a crisis, justifying sweeping reforms including privatisation, centralised control and standardisation. Even though our education system is not in crisis – it may be flawed but it’s not fundamentally broken – this government has insisted on imposing solutions that have not been sector-approved, and in most cases sector-unwelcomed.

Indeed his recent book, Building on our Strengths – Improving Education in Aotearoa NZ, Professor Stuart McNaughton makes the argument for not ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’. His view is that we must raise the status of the teaching profession, recognise ‘adaptive expertise’ and imploring the Ministry to seek a range of evidence sources, not simply relying on advocacy groups. More money for research and stronger partnerships between schools and researchers was also advised. 

In the recent report Searching for Utopia: What our education system must confront and what it could be, authors Hood and Macann begin with a call back to the 1995 report Tinkering Towards Utopia; A century of public school reform and posit the same conclusion. ‘Tinkering’ with curriculum and pedagogy (something the electoral swing encourages and enables) will never create enough change to be of any substance. 

The “increasing challenges of neurodiversity and challenges to socio-emotional and mental health” are mostly being left to schools to deal with, “in a piecemeal, adhoc and isolated way” 

“We live in a multicultural society, but our education system doesn’t recognise that. It’s based on Pākehā values that contradict and/or clash with many different cultures like Pacific and Māori.”  – Pacific Tertiary Student