Purpose of the Act

To establish and regulate an education system that—

• Provides students with the skills, knowledge, and capabilities that they need to fully participate in the labour market, society, and their communities; and
• Supports their health, safety, and well-being; and
• Assures the quality of the education provided and the institutions and educators that provide and support it; and
• Honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi and supports Māori-Crown relationships.

The Act repeals and replaces all major existing education and training legislation. It is intended to be simpler, more user-friendly and less prescriptive than the previous legislative framework by:

• Introducing a new structure that follows the journey of students through education, starting with early learning, moving to schooling and then tertiary and vocational training,
• Moving some prescriptive detail directly into regulations,
• Moving other detailed provisions into Schedules at the end of the Act, with “sunset clauses”, meaning that they will expire after a set period of time and new regulations will need to be developed to replace them, and
• Retaining large parts of the existing education legislation, which were transferred into the Act unchanged.