New Zealand Education / New Zealand Education System

We provide you with information about the New Zealand education system and its institutions which offer a wide range of courses and qualifications.

New Zealand has an international reputation as a provider of quality education. Our educational system is progressive with many state of the art facilities. We can offer you courses for academic, professional and vocational studies.

The New Zealand education system is very popular among international students. And there’s an increasing diversity of students taking part in international education.

a more international curriculum
reforming programme structures, credit systems and recognition agreements
greater awareness of equity issues in international education.

New Zealand Education / Primary School - Secondary Schools
The education system in New Zealand has two stages of schooling – primary schools (years 0-8) and secondary schools (years 9-15).

Within these stages, New Zealand families can choose between two types of schooling for their children's education:

state and integrated schools (Government funded)
private schools (fee funded)

Early childhood education is not compulsory in New Zealand. Parents and caregivers can choose from a wide range of services which include:

New Zealand Free Kindergartens for children between the ages of three and five.
Education and Care Centres, for children from birth to school age.
Home-based services, which are a cluster of homes under the supervision of a qualified coordinator.
The Correspondence School, a distance education service mainly for children between three and five who are unable to attend school or have limited access to school because of isolation, illness or itinerancy.

As at July 2002 there were 2699 schools in New Zealand; 2587 were state or integrated and the remaining 111 were private.
Secondary level schools include:

secondary schools (years 9-15)
secondary schools with attached intermediates (years 7-15)
composite schools (years 0-15)
restricted composite or area schools (years 7-10)

Primary level schools include:

full primary schools (years 0-8)
contributing schools (years 0-6)
intermediate schools (years 6-8)