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Consultation on enrolling international fee-paying students under Year 9 took place from 29 November 2021 to 11 March 2022.

The Minister of Education commissioned Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | The Ministry of Education to review the policy settings for the enrolment of international fee-paying ākonga | students under Year 9 (primary and intermediate level).

This was signalled in the Minister’s speech at the international education forum in July 2021.

The discussion document for public consultation outlined the current situation, problem definition and proposals for change.

Discussion document

We received 177 written submissions, many of which are schools who are currently or have previously enrolled international fee-paying students. We also organised four workshop sessions with the sector and one public session.

Overall, respondents didn’t support restricting enrolments for international fee-paying students under Year 9. They indicated that international education provides a range of benefits, including:

• helping students develop their global citizenship skills, and
• providing extra revenue which schools use to strengthen the education for all students.

They also indicated that if there are any risks, the value and benefits of international education outweigh these risks.

Based on the input received through this consultation process, we will provide advice to the Minister of Education. Timeframes for implementation will be dependent on consultation and further analysis.

Summary of feedback

Consultation on enrolling international fee-paying students under Year 9 took place from 29 November 2021 to 11 March 2022.

The Minister of Education commissioned Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | The Ministry of Education to review the policy settings for the enrolment of international fee-paying ākonga | students under Year 9 (primary and intermediate level).

This was signalled in the Minister’s speech at the international education forum in July 2021.

The discussion document for public consultation outlined the current situation, problem definition and proposals for change.

Discussion document

• What would the role look like when focused on the local curriculum to support the wellbeing of learners?
• How could we identify when learner wellbeing knowledge and skill were improving?
• What does good engagement with a Curriculum Lead look like, who should be involved and how often?
• How would impact the roles and define the support and process they needed?
• How can the Curriculum Leads get regionally connected with?:
  •  the right people
  • The different learning contexts
  • The resources they would need.

• The name of the role is a potential issue.
• These roles need to have a pedagogical approach that is holistic and focuses on connectedness, skills and competencies as well as knowledges.
• We need to take a system-wide approach to wellbeing to ensure curriculum advice is aligned with other wellbeing frameworks (such as ERO’s wellbeing indicators).
• Curriculum Leads need to put a wellbeing lens over BAU strategic planning to determine needs for different contexts.
• The Curriculum Leads need the skill to talk with a range of people. They need to be able to help teachers and kaiako identify what sort of support is needed.

We are using the information gathered at these meetings to develop a more detailed design of the role to enable tools and resources to be progressed for the Curriculum Leads. 

We want to continue working with you to further refine the roles and ways of working of the Curriculum Leads. Keep an eye out for opportunities to be involved in the next stage.