The Education Legislation Bill

The public policy objectives of the Bill are to:

• strengthen existing legal regimes to make them more effectivemore effective and efficient
• modernise out-of-date legislation so it remains  relevant,remains relevant, effective, and fit for purposefit-for-purpose
• address situations where, over time, the law has become inconsistent with practice or has given rise to practical difficulties
• address omissions in the law.

On 30 June 2016,The Education Legislation Bill amends several Acts, including some parts of the Education and Science Committee recommended the Bill be passed with some changes . Act 1989. These changes are different to the proposals currently being consulted on to update the Education Act 1989. No decisions on the update will be made until after the consultation closes on 14 December. No legislation to update the Act on the matters being consulted on in the update will be introduced until 2016.

Amendments covered in the Education Legislation Bill

• Enabling a principal to manage more than one school
• Varying school opening hours
• Enabling the use of national student numbers in online learning
• Enabling the Secretary for Education to approve terms and conditions of employment additional to those in applicable collective agreements (concurrence)
  
• Managing school Boards of Trustees’ payrolls
• Allowing Tertiary Education Institutions to sponsor partnership schools | kura hourua
• Enabling home-based early childhood education services to offer out of school care at the same time
• Strengthening and modernising the framework for Tertiary Education Institutions’ investment in related entities
• Streamlining the process for setting conditions on fees charged to domestic tertiary students
• Updating the Ngarimu VC and 28th (Maori) Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Act 1945
• Updating the Pacific Islands Polynesian Education Foundation Act 1972
• Miscellaneous amendments