Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2)
This bill makes several changes to how New Zealand schools and universities are run. For schools, it creates one clear top goal — helping every student reach their highest possible achievement — and requires schools to have written plans to manage student absences. For universities, it requires them to have a written policy on free speech and a way for people to make complaints if they feel free speech or academic freedom has been breached. It also makes changes to how teachers are registered and how the Teaching Council is set up.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it, and the parts of the text that show it.
Schools must focus on helping every student do as well as they can, manage student absences through written plans, and universities must have written free-speech policies.
A board's paramount objective in governing a school is to ensure that every student at the school is able to attain their highest possible standard in educational achievement.
A board must have an attendance management plan for its school.
The council of a university must develop and adopt a statement that sets out the university's approach to freedom of expression.
The council of a university must establish and maintain a complaints procedure relating to academic freedom and freedom of expression.
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
This bill is open for public submissions to the Education and Workforce Committee. Anyone can tell the committee what they think, and you don’t need to be an expert. Submissions close 11 June 2025.
Bill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.