Beyond Capacity: Budget 2025 - What Was Asked For and What Was Delivered

Insights from the Education Sector on Learning Support Investment

Budget 2025 outlines significant investment in learning support—most notably $645.8 million in operating funding and $100.9 million in capital for expanding services and staffing across the education system. While these financial commitments are considerable, the way the funding is structured and allocated reveals several key tensions between what was delivered and what the education sector actually asked for.

The Aotearoa Educators’ Collective's Beyond Capacity report (Aiono, 2025) called for a needs-based, relational, and culturally responsive system of learning support—one that would empower schools to act swiftly and effectively for their learners. Instead, Budget 2025 delivers centrally controlled initiatives, a continuation of application-based funding models, and a patchwork of reforms that fall short of systemic transformation.

What follows below is an analysis of each core area addressed in Budget 2025, the identification of what was provided, what fell short, and what remains absent based on the Beyond Capacity report.

Teacher Aide Hours

• What was promised: A total increase of over 2 million teacher aide hours annually by 2028, including:

  • 1,020,080 hours under the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS

  • 900,000 hours allocated to Early Years at School

  • 157,089 hours for Behaviour and Communications Support

• What was underdelivered: The majority of these hours are directed to centrally controlled services (particularly Early Intervention Services), not directly to schools. Rollout is phased over several years, and there is no clarity about how these hours will be equitably distributed among schools.

• What is missing: With approximately 1,900 schools across Aotearoa, the total equates to an average of roughly 1,093 hours per school per year, or just over 21 hours per week. However, because a significant portion of these hours will remain under Ministry control (e.g., EIS), the actual number of hours accessible directly by schools is much lower. Without a clear framework for equitable distribution or school-level autonomy, many schools and learners with high needs may not benefit from this increase at all. Flexibility to respond to local needs remains absent.

Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs)

• What was promised: $192M to implement LSCs in all primary and intermediate schools by 2028.

• What was underdelivered: No interim plan or support for schools awaiting their LSC allocation.

• What is missing: There is currently no transparency around how the LSCs will be allocated across schools. Given the existing inequities in access to LSCs, more information is urgently needed to ensure equitable distribution of this critical resource. The lack of urgency to ensure all schools are supported in the short term, and the insufficient integration with broader learning support models, remain significant concerns.

Educational Psychologists

• What was promised: Budget 2025 provides for more than 560 additional FTE specialists across the Early Intervention Service, including educational psychologists, speech-language therapists, occupational therapists, and early intervention teachers. Additionally, it funds 6.2 new FTE psychologists specifically to support learners with communication and behaviour needs.

• What was underdelivered: While 560 FTE sounds substantial, only a small portion are educational psychologists. The document does not specify how many of these are new psychologists, leaving ambiguity about how much this investment will impact the current national shortage. This investment does not meaningfully address service inequities.

• What is missing: There is no dedicated recruitment or retention plan for Māori and Pasifika psychologists, nor any strategic focus on regionally equitable distribution. The allocation remains Ministry-controlled, with no mechanisms to ensure schools or communities have localised access to these specialists. Furthermore the focus is on intern psychologists - rather than experienced, highly qualified professionals. Many families and schools requiring psychologists often face complex and highly challenging issues - much of which are beyond the scope and experience of psychologists early in their careers.

Early Intervention Services (EIS)

• What was promised: Budget 2025 allocates $266 million to expand Early Intervention Services (EIS), extending support to students through to the end of Year 1.

• What was underdelivered: While the investment includes funding for additional early intervention teachers and specialists, it remains Ministry-controlled and does not provide schools with autonomy over service delivery. The scope of intervention is framed broadly but lacks clarity on how support will be allocated or prioritised.

• What is missing: There is no indication that services will extend beyond Year 1, nor is there a strategy to integrate these services with existing school-based supports. Critically, it is unclear whether the EIS expansion will focus solely on the government’s priority areas—such as implementing structured literacy and mathematics—or whether it will address the broader, whole-child learning needs that are central to inclusive and trauma-informed education. The absence of this clarity raises concerns that the approach may be too narrow to meet the complex needs of tamariki requiring early intervention.

Te Tiriti Commitments

• What was promised: The government has presented Budget 2025 as a significant investment in Māori education, including new curriculum resources and professional learning for all teachers in te reo Māori and tikanga.

• What was underdelivered: While funding has been directed to general curriculum and attendance areas, there is no dedicated investment that is Māori-led or co-designed with Māori communities. The promised $14 million for teacher training in te reo Māori and tikanga is a significant reduction from the original $37 million allocation, raising concerns about the depth, reach, and long-term sustainability of this professional learning. Moreover, the new STEM curriculum tools lack clarity—there is no indication whether they reflect mātauranga Māori or are grounded in a Te Ao Māori worldview, suggesting a continued dominance of Western epistemologies.

• What is missing: There are no co-constructed approaches with Māori education leaders, and the disestablishment of Resource Teacher: Māori roles further weakens culturally grounded support for tamariki Māori. The curriculum reforms appear to be imposed onto kura, rather than emerging from kaupapa Māori contexts. This reinforces a Eurocentric approach that contradicts the government's stated commitment to equity. Māori education cannot be improved through top-down solutions—it must be led from within Te Ao Māori and supported by a genuine partnership under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Infrastructure

• What was promised: $90M to build 25 new satellite classrooms and improve accessibility.

• What was underdelivered: The scale is small considering national demand.

• What is missing: No long-term strategy for inclusive infrastructure or guidance on prioritisation.

Inclusive Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

• What was promised: Budget 2025 includes additional funding to increase tuition and training subsidies for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes and expands the School Onsite Training Programme (SOTP), adding 530 placements to allow trainees to work in schools while completing qualifications.

• What was underdelivered: While the increased accessibility of ITE is welcomed, there is no focus on the content or inclusivity of ITE training. The budget does not address the skills and knowledge teachers need to support students with diverse learning needs, trauma, or neurodiversity.

• What is missing: There is no commitment to embedding inclusive, trauma-informed, or neuro-affirming pedagogies into ITE programmes. While the government recognises workforce supply as a priority, it has not addressed the urgent need to reform what teachers are taught in ITE to ensure they are prepared for the complex, real-world challenges of inclusive education in Aotearoa.

Support for High and Complex Needs

• What was promised: $7.3 million for 45 more places in the Intensive Wraparound Service | Te Kahu Tōī (a 7.5% increase), so more learners with the most complex social, emotional and behavioural needs can get tailored supports.

• What was underdelivered: While the increase is welcome, it represents only a small expansion of a high-demand service. The number of new places is unlikely to meet the scale of need reported across the country.

• What is missing: The Beyond Capacity report called for a broader systemic investment in wraparound services, including high health needs support, regional equity of access, and stronger integration with school-based teams. This modest increase does not address the widespread shortfall in intensive, multi-agency interventions needed to support our most complex learners in their local contexts. Notably, there has been no change to the criteria or funding levels for High Health Needs, despite persistent calls from the sector for this to be reviewed and expanded.

Educator Wellbeing and Workforce Support

• What was promised: $3 million has been allocated to increase the capability of teacher aides to support learners' social-emotional wellbeing, behavioural, and neurodiverse needs.

• What was underdelivered: While any professional learning and development (PLD) for teacher aides is welcome, it is often not the teacher aides who require the most development to achieve inclusive practice and reduce behavioural dysregulation. There was no funding directed toward the wellbeing or capability-building of teachers and school leaders themselves.

• What is missing: The budget provides no investment in teacher retention, wellbeing, or professional mentoring, despite overwhelming feedback from the sector about burnout and workload pressures. There has also been a significant reduction in the availability of PLD for teachers across all curriculum areas. Without access to regular, high-quality in-service PLD, teachers will not be equipped with the confidence or skills needed to meet the increasingly complex needs of their students in the years ahead. Equitable outcomes for learners rely heavily on the pedagogical capability of classroom teachers. Schools—and their learners—would benefit most if teachers and leaders had regular access to evidence-based PLD and systemic wellbeing support. Investment in teacher capability must include both in-service professional learning and reforms to Initial Teacher Education (ITE).

Policy and Curriculum Flexibility

• What was promised: Continued focus on structured literacy and numeracy.

• What was underdelivered: Narrow definitions of curriculum continue to dominate.

• What is missing: No room for localised, strengths-based, or culturally responsive curriculum decisions.

Note: RTLB support for Years 11–13 has been removed, and Resource Teacher: Literacy roles disestablished, despite the government’s stated focus on raising literacy achievement.

Funding Models

• What was promised: No changes announced.

• What was underdelivered: Maintains the current application-based, deficit-framed funding mechanisms.

• What is missing: No move toward equitable, needs-based, and responsive funding design.

Governance and Trust in Schools

• What was promised: Centralised rollout of new support services.

• What was underdelivered: Schools not empowered to determine how best to support their students.

• What is missing: A shift from a “done to” model to a genuine partnership model. Schools are not given sufficient autonomy to make context-informed decisions about where and how to allocate learning support.

Reflecting on the Budget: Revisiting the Questions That Matter

As we assess the learning support commitments in Budget 2025, it is critical to return to the reflective questions posed in the Beyond Capacity report. These questions provide a lens through which to evaluate whether system change is genuinely meeting the needs of learners, whānau, and educators:

• Will this policy ensure equitable access to resources for all schools—especially those in rural, high-equity-index, or high-needs communities?

• Does it enable a stable, culturally responsive, and sustainable learning support workforce?

• How are the voices of whānau and educators reflected in the design and delivery of support?

• Does this initiative shift power to those closest to the learner, or reinforce centralised control?

• Will this lead to mana-enhancing, inclusive learning environments—or reinforce narrow metrics and exclusion?

We urge policy-makers to centre these questions in future investment decisions and to work with the profession—not around or against it—if we are to build a learning support system that truly responds to the diverse needs of Aotearoa’s mokopuna.

Conclusion

Budget 2025 introduces a welcome focus on learning support but falls short of the transformational reform sought by the sector and detailed in the Beyond Capacity report. Investments are heavily centralised, delayed in implementation, and fail to align with key policy priorities like literacy, wellbeing, and culturally responsive practice. The lack of reform to the very funding models used to allocate support—many of which have been widely criticised as inequitable and deficit-based—signals a missed opportunity for system-level change.

Additionally, the "done to" approach that underpins many of these initiatives erodes trust in schools and educators. Schools are well-placed to make decisions that best reflect the needs of their learners, yet are given minimal autonomy in this budget. True progress will require bold, inclusive, and transparent investment that works with schools, not simply acts upon them.

The Beyond Capacity report made it clear: the sector is not asking for patchwork solutions or rebranded allocations. It is calling for a coherent, needs-responsive, and relationship-based system of support that enables all learners—especially those with complex needs, trauma histories, or systemic barriers—to thrive. The funding must be easy to access, aligned with inclusive practice, and driven by trust in the professional expertise of schools and their communities.

Recommendations Going Forward:

1. Reform Funding Models: Transition from deficit-framed, application-heavy systems to equitable, needs-based funding that is accessible and responsive.

2. Empower Local Decision-Making: Allocate discretionary support resources directly to schools, enabling context-sensitive decisions based on deep knowledge of learners.

3. Uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Partner with Māori in the design, delivery, and monitoring of learning support systems, and reinvest in kaupapa Māori approaches.

4. Expand Specialist Access: Grow the educational psychologist workforce meaningfully and ensure regionally and culturally equitable distribution.

5. Invest in Inclusive ITE: Embed inclusive, trauma-informed, and neuro-affirming training into all Initial Teacher Education programmes and in-service PLD.

6. Support Educator Wellbeing: Prioritise the wellbeing of the education workforce through resourcing, mentoring, and workload protections.

7. Shift the Narrative: Move away from compliance and standardisation towards a model that values holistic development, relational pedagogy, and educational justice.

Only with these steps will New Zealand’s education system move beyond capacity and into a future that truly meets the needs of all learners.