Budget 2026: Government sets aside $131m for literacy and numeracy programme

Monday, 18 May 2026

Education Minister Erica Stanford has announced $131m from the upcoming budget will go towards the next phase of the Government’s literacy and numeracy programme.

The funding will go to a range of initiatives including specialist support and universal resourcing, largely aimed at primary school children.

These include:

• $38.7m on workbooks and a “universal digital writing tool” for primary school students to improve their writing.

• $25.1m on professional development for “High Impact Explicit Teaching” of literacy and maths

• $14.6m for an additional 36 full-time teachers for targeted maths support

• $8m for new literacy package including new literacy videos

• $6.6m for a pilot of three “maths hubs” across the country which will act as centres for excellence

Stanford announced the funding alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Lower Hutt on Monday.

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“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.

“Together, the Read to Succeed, Make It Write and Make It Count action plans contribute directly to our ambitious target of seeing 80 per cent of Year 8 students at or above the expected curriculum level for their age in reading, writing and maths by December 2030.”

It follows last week’s announcement which confirmed NCEA would be scrapped and replaced by the New Zealand Certificate of Education (NZCE) at Year 12 and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education (NZACE) at Year 13.

Stanford said each student would study at least five subjects each year, with a minimum of three subjects required to achieve each qualification.

Certificates will clearly show how many subjects a student has passed, along with the grade achieved in each subject, aimed to create incentives for students to work hard and achieve success across more subjects.

They would be graded on an A+ to E scale instead of the not achieved to excellence grading NCEA used.