Full Breakdown
Budget 2026 Announces Primary Maths Funding
5/18/2026, 6:05:49 AM
Budget Announcement and Primary Maths Investment
On the day of the 2026 New Zealand budget, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford unveiled a primary maths investment. The package funds the Make It Count programme, launched early 2025, which introduced a structured maths curriculum, resources and professional-development for teachers in Years 0-8. The reforms followed a 2023 assessment that labelled Year 8 maths results a “total system failure” and a decline in achievement.
CIPS Results Show Early Gains
University of Otago and New Zealand Council for Educational Research released CIPS results for Term 4 2025. Year 6 students meeting expectations rose to 36 % (up from 30 % in 2024 and 28 % in 2023). Year 3 achievement rose from 20 % to 25 % and Year 8 from 22 % to 24 %, though not statistically significant. Share of Year 3 students more than one year behind fell from 45 % to 38 %, a statistically significant shift. Target is 80 % of Year 8 students at or above expectations by December 2030. Among 70 000 Year 6 pupils, 6 % gain adds 4 200 students meeting expectations.
Government and Expert Statements
Luxon called 2023 Year 8 results a “total system failure” and urged swift action to transform maths education. Stanford described the 2025 CIPS outcomes as encouraging, noting the job is unfinished but that statistically significant improvement matters. She said 98 % of schools had adopted refreshed curriculum and 85 % of teachers had altered methods. Professor Gaven Martin, former chair of the Royal Society advisory panel on curriculum refresh, called results compelling and stressed human impact.
Criticism and Implementation Concerns
Some teachers warned that the rapid curriculum overhaul, combined with reforms, creates a heavy workload and strain capacity. The CIPS data show statistically significant gains only for Year 6 and for Year 3 students falling behind; Year 3 and Year 8 improvements are not statistically significant, leaving uncertainty about trends. The assessment captured performance three-and-a-half terms after the reforms began, limiting insight into long-term effects.
Verbatim Quotes
- “These are still early results and there is a long way to go, but after years of decline, this is encouraging,” — Erica Stanford, Education Minister
- “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.” — Erica Stanford, Education Minister
- “If these results hold up across the sector, and there is no reason they should not, then that is many tens of thousands of students, perhaps one hundred thousand students, now succeeding in mathematics who would otherwise have been regarded as failing, with all the poor life consequences that entails.” — Gaven Martin, Distinguished Professor
- “Ahead of it, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the 2023 math results for Year 8 students represented “a total system failure”.” — Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister
Future Monitoring and Funding
The Ministry will release CIPS results for 2026 and 2027, track progress toward the 80 % Year 8 target, and continue funding the Make It Count programme.
