20189 (2026). Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to the Minister of Education

20189 (2026). Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to the Minister of Education: What enforcement mechanisms, if any, applies if school board fails to meet the Government's expectation to ensure "equitable outcomes for Māori students, you need to be offering te reo Māori and you need to be culturally competent"?

Hon Erica Stanford: The Education and Training Act 2020 sets out the objectives of school boards, which includes ensuring boards seek to achieve equitable outcomes for Māori students and to take all reasonable steps to provide for students to be taught, and to learn, in te reo Māori on request of their parents or immediate caregivers. The Act provides for a range of statutory interventions that can be applied to ensure boards are meeting their statutory obligations. Whether a statutory intervention is required is decided on a case-by-case basis, after identifying board-level issues that may be present