ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
Education Minister Nikki Kaye has confirmed that the Government will replace the decile system for schools with ‘targeted funding’ to better support those students most at risk of not achieving.
“For too long schools have been stigmatised and wrongly judged by their decile number,” Ms Kaye said.
“Today I’m announcing that the Cabinet has agreed to replace the decile system with a Risk Index that allows us to better target funding to schools with children and young people most at risk of not achieving due to disadvantage.
“We will also be replacing the equity index used to allocate disadvantage funding in early childhood education with the Risk Index,” Ms Kaye said.
Decile funding currently accounts for less than 3 per cent of a school’s resources.
“However, I’m pleased to be able to confirm that no school, early learning service or nga kohanga reo will see a reduction in their funding as a direct result of this change.
“In fact, we expect some will gain significantly,” Ms Kaye said.
Many new parents in the Kiwi-Indian community, especially the new migrants who have recently arrived in the country and struggle to comprehend the actual meaning of decile system that seems to divide schools, and in some cases almost unfairly, would take some comfort from this latest announcement.
“I was never able to completely understand this decile system except that it placed some expectation on us to look for a school with better decile rating,” said Richa Singh, a working mum of a five-year-old kid who struggled to fully comprehend the meaning of decile ranking made available to general public.
“My husband has tried explaining me many times that decile system is just a metric informing how much funding a particular school can get from the government, but it is hard to think it that way always.
“Instead you are tempted to think in a way that decile system was a reflection of the quality of education imparted to students in the school, which obviously adds to your anxiety if your zone does only have low decile schools,” Mrs Singh added.
Education Minister Nikki Kaye has confirmed that the Government will replace the decile system for schools with ‘targeted funding’ to better support those students most at risk of not achieving.
“For too long schools have been stigmatised and wrongly judged by their decile number,” Ms Kaye said.
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Education Minister Nikki Kaye has confirmed that the Government will replace the decile system for schools with ‘targeted funding’ to better support those students most at risk of not achieving.
“For too long schools have been stigmatised and wrongly judged by their decile number,” Ms Kaye said.
“Today I’m announcing that the Cabinet has agreed to replace the decile system with a Risk Index that allows us to better target funding to schools with children and young people most at risk of not achieving due to disadvantage.
“We will also be replacing the equity index used to allocate disadvantage funding in early childhood education with the Risk Index,” Ms Kaye said.
Decile funding currently accounts for less than 3 per cent of a school’s resources.
“However, I’m pleased to be able to confirm that no school, early learning service or nga kohanga reo will see a reduction in their funding as a direct result of this change.
“In fact, we expect some will gain significantly,” Ms Kaye said.
Many new parents in the Kiwi-Indian community, especially the new migrants who have recently arrived in the country and struggle to comprehend the actual meaning of decile system that seems to divide schools, and in some cases almost unfairly, would take some comfort from this latest announcement.
“I was never able to completely understand this decile system except that it placed some expectation on us to look for a school with better decile rating,” said Richa Singh, a working mum of a five-year-old kid who struggled to fully comprehend the meaning of decile ranking made available to general public.
“My husband has tried explaining me many times that decile system is just a metric informing how much funding a particular school can get from the government, but it is hard to think it that way always.
“Instead you are tempted to think in a way that decile system was a reflection of the quality of education imparted to students in the school, which obviously adds to your anxiety if your zone does only have low decile schools,” Mrs Singh added.
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