Budget 2026: Christopher Luxon, Education Minister Erica Stanford announce $131m for maths and literacy in primary, intermediate schools
The Government is spending more than $131 million in Budget 26 to enhance mathematics and literacy resources as it pursues improved achievement among young students.
It will go towards 12 new initiatives, including new resources, tests, and professional development for teachers and principals in primary and intermediate schools.
New maths hubs will act as “centres of excellence and expertise to improve teacher confidence and capability”, said a statement from Education Minister Erica Stanford, while money is also going towards 36 additional maths intervention teachers.
As the Herald reported this morning, part of the maths package includes a new assessment of Year 5 students’ knowledge of times tables and division.
That’s intended to help teachers spot gaps in kids’ learning earlier and inform parents about how their children are progressing.
In reading and writing, the funding will go towards new curriculum-aligned workbooks, a digital writing tool for all Year 6-8 students, a 12-week structured literacy programme for struggling students and implementing a new Year 2 literacy check.
“We are aspirational about what every child can achieve, no matter where they live or where they go to school.
“These investments begin to level the playing field, reducing costs for schools and backing evidence-led reforms,” Stanford said.
Labour’s education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen said her party was “really supportive of anything that improves literacy and numeracy for our children”.
However, she wanted to see more detail around where that money is coming from. Stanford said more information on that will be shared at next week’s Budget.
More details were also shared from the latest Curriculum Insights and Progress Study (CIPS).
It monitors Year 3, 6 and 8 students’ progress in reading, writing and maths, and is run by the University of Otago and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
The Herald earlier reported a “statistically significant” increase in Year 6 students meeting or exceeding curriculum expectations. In 2025, this reached 36%, which is up from 30% in 2024 and 28% in 2023.
The Government said this followed the reform of maths in primary schools. A new structured maths curriculum, resources and professional development for teachers were introduced last year. The CIPS assessment occurred in Term 4, so about three-and-a-half terms after the reforms began.
“These are still early results and there is a long way to go, but after years of decline, this is encouraging,” Stanford told the Herald earlier.
“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.
“These results are a testament to the incredible work of teachers and leaders in our school embedding these reforms every day in their classrooms.”
Stanford said the results suggested “we may be starting to head in the right direction”.
“No one is pretending the job is done. Achievement levels are still far below where we want them to be. But seeing statistically significant improvement matters.”
Year 3 and Year 8 results have also improved, however, not to a degree which is deemed “statistically significant”.
For Year 3, it has increased from 20% in 2023 to 25% in 2025, and for Year 8, from 22% to 24%.
One of the Government’s core targets is having 80% of Year 8 students at or above their expected curriculum level for their age in reading, writing and maths by December 2030. This is measured through the CIPS results.
A noteworthy result from the CIPS is that the percentage of Year 3 students more than one year behind curriculum expectations has had a statistically significant change. It’s fallen from 45% in 2023 to 38% in 2025.
In writing, there was a statistically significant improvement of 5% in writing for Year 6 students as well.
“While we have seen early improvement in some areas of student achievement after decades of decline and stagnation, we will know we are succeeding when we see consistent improvements over many years, with more students achieving at curriculum levels and fewer students needing additional support.”
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.