News

Tēnā koutou  

Our mahi is to inform and facilitate improvement in early childhood services, schools and kura. We do this through our institutional reviews and system-wide evaluation and research that is focused on the provision of education and the care of learners. As I periodically do through ERO’s Insights Newsletter, I want to share some of our findings with you.

Review findings over the last few years have identified a growing concern about the rate of non-compliance with regulatory standards and associated licensing criteria in early childhood services.

Over the last three years, ERO found only a slight improvement in the percentage of services meeting regulatory standards from 74-76% in 2020 to 80% in 2022. Services with non-compliance that pose an unacceptable risk to children rose by 4%, from 8% in 2020 to 12% in 2022.

The responsibility of keeping tamariki safe while in the care of their school, kura, and early learning service is the responsibility of every adult.

In the education system, ERO plays an integral role in their protection by reviewing and having an oversight of effective child protection policies and processes. We aim to provide schools and early learning services with the ability to quickly identify any gaps in their policies and processes.

New research, published today, from the Education Review Office (ERO) has found that children starting school at the same time can have many benefits for children, whānau and schools.

The Education Review Office | Te Tari Arotake Mātauranga (ERO) welcomes the announcement of targeted investment aimed at supporting the revitalisation of te reo Māori.

Our new research, published today, shows that Covid-19 has disproportionally and significantly impacted Pacific learners.

Te Ihuwaka's (ERO's Education Evaluation Centre's) latest early childhood education good practice report, published today, looks at how children’s cultures and languages can be reflected in everyday practice, supporting their learning and wellbeing.

The Education Review Office - Te Tari Arotake Mātauranga (ERO) today released research reports exploring the impact of the 2021 second wave of national lockdowns on Māori learner success. The three reports reveal the compounding impacts of the pandemic with many Māori learners and whānau continuing to face inadequate access to household necessities, digital devices, internet connectivity, and a lack of suitable resources for te reo Māori learning.

The Education Review Office (ERO) has released the results of its evaluation of Te Aho o te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura). The report considers how well the current education system settings and implementation practices enable Te Kura to meet the needs of its ākonga and the government’s overall expectations of Te Kura.  

New reports published by Te Ihuwaka set out how prepared students and schools felt ahead of the Covid-19 lockdown in August and provide recommendations for how schools can support their students as they return to the classroom.

A new report from the Education Review Office (ERO) has found that tailored programmes were successful in supporting Auckland NCEA students learning after lockdown last year.

Our 3 newly published Early Childhood Education sector resources complete the suite of Ngā Ara Whai Hua resources that support evaluation for improvement in early childhood services. 

The Education Review Office (ERO) has found that education for children and young people living in Oranga Tamariki residential care facilities is not good enough.

Hon Carmel Sepuloni, Minister of Social Development, has today announced the Independent Children’s Monitor (ICM), which is currently located within the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), will become its own departmental agency hosted by ERO. 

Insights from Nicholas Pole, Te Tumu Whakarae mō te Arotake Mātauranga | Chief Executive and Chief Review Officer

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on all aspects of life around the world. In Aotearoa New Zealand, significant disruption to ECE and schooling has occurred through lockdowns, closure of individual centres and schools, changing alert levels, and from the ongoing uncertainty.  

ERO’s role is to ensure that New Zealanders can have confidence in our education system. ERO wants every school to be a great school and a great place to learn for every learner. We all acknowledge that schools are busy, complex entities with competing priorities and multiple demands on their time and resources. In order to support schools in this challenge, ERO is adopting a new way of working with the sector.

In June 2020, ERO published the report Overseas Trained Teachers: Adjusting to living and working in New Zealand. The report focused on the experiences of Overseas Trained Teachers (OTTs), who had recently arrived, in adjusting to working and living in New Zealand.

Given the Covid-19 global pandemic has placed strict restrictions on New Zealand’s borders, ERO returned to the same OTTs to check on how they were coping with the pandemic.

Evidence demonstrates that collaboration between schools, focused on improving teaching and learning outcomes, has a positive impact on raising student, school and system performance. Schools who share knowledge and work together are more effective in improving the quality of teaching, learning, and supporting school development. They can also help bolster the education system as a whole.