Govt announces school decile system to be abolished in two years to 'reduce the stigma'

With the hope of reducing stigma associated with low-decile schools, the Government announced its timeline today for getting rid of school deciles.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins made the announcement today, saying school deciles will be replaced in 2021 or 2022 by an Equity Index "that better aligns equity funding to actual levels of socio-economic disadvantage in our schools".

Mr Hipkins said the new system would increase the education resourcing for some of New Zealand's most disadvantaged students.

"This increased resourcing is essential to support them to succeed in education, in life, in employment and in their communities," he said.

"Getting rid of school deciles will also reduce the stigma associated with them whereby too many of our schools are being judged on their decile rating, rather than what they achieve for their students. This is unfair and needs to stop."

Mr Hipkins said Cabinet had agreed to the in-principle replacement of deciles with an Equity Index, but it is subject to the results of a consultation with principals and sector stakeholders in 2019. There will also be public engagement on the replacement in 2020, and additional funding in Budget 2020 or 2021 being available to allow the Equity Index to go ahead.

The Ministry of Education is expected to discuss with the sector how the Equity Index will work, how it could be used, the supports and services that it might apply to, and how any transition might be managed.

"These discussions are not about school funding but their results will help shape a package of supports for future budgets. We want to get this right before making any final decisions," Mr Hipkins said.

The previous Government attempted to replace deciles with a Risk Index, but Mr Hipkins said there were "big differences" between the Government's proposal for an Equity Index.

"The Equity Index considers the whole school population when assessing the level of disadvantage in a school. The Risk Index, by contrast, tried to predict which individual students were most at risk of not achieving."

He said the Equity Index was aligned with research which shows that concentrations of disadvantage in a school matters for the achievement of all students, not just those who are most disadvantaged.