Advantages of the New Zealand Education System

New Zealand's education system has currently been ranked as the seventh best in the world by the Programme for International Student Assessment. This country has well qualified teachers, bigger schools, more facilities and is full of friendly people.

During Primary and Secondary school  they will generally ask for either a voluntary donation, school fees or a parental contribution. For government schools these fees will be lower however if you choose for your child to go to a Private school then the fee's will be higher. For tertiary education funding is usually through government subsidies and student fees, so fees are usually high unless you are lucky enough to get scholarship which the government offers.

If you are enrolled in a full time course in a university there are student loans and student allowances available for those eligible. The Student allowances are determined by means testing which is based on residential and citizenship qualifications, age, location, marital status, dependant children, and personal, spousal and parental income. Student loans are available to all New Zealand Permanent Residents, this can cover course fees and related expenses, aswell as a weekly allowance to full time students. Eventually these loans have to be repaid at a rate depending on your income level.

Most children in New Zealand will start off at an Early Childcare centre, such as a playcentre or kindergarten for children aged 3 to 5, also available for children aged 0 to 5 are Childcare centres which can offer full time, part time or occasional care for those who work.

Primary and Secondary School is compulsory for any child aged between 6 and 16 with exceptions for those that are 15 and have parental or school permission to leave early. In New Zealand there are three types of schools available State, Private and State Integrated Schools, only the State and State Integrated Schools are Government funded. Private Schools only receive 25% of their funding from the New Zealand Government this is why the fee's are higher. Around 86% of children attend State schools, 10% attend State Integrated schools and only 4% attend Private schools.

School level is referred to as years, with Primary School being from years 1 to 6 (Age 5 - 11), Intermediate School from 7 to 8 (Age 11 - 13)  and Secondary School runs from years 9 to 13 (Age 13 - 18). When you start school depends on your date of birth, If you where born very early in the year there is a possibility that you may start school earlier then expected.

Occasionally Primary, Intermediate and Secondary Schools are joined together and teachers teach in groups rather then years. This is mostly found in rural areas where there aren't enough students to make up class numbers. Instead they will run as Years 1 to 8 as Full Primary School (Ages 5 - 13), Years 7 to 10 as Middle School (Ages 11-15), Years 7 to 13 as Intermediate/Secondary School (Ages 11 - 18), Years 1 to 13 as Area Schools (Ages 5 - 18) and Preschool - Year 13 as Correspondence Schools (Preschool - Age 18).

For State Schooling which School you will attend depends on your 'Home Zone' , if you are living in the Schools Zone then you will most likely attend that school, this helps with overcrowding of schools. Students who live outside a certain zone can be attend a certain school depending on whether there are enough places available.

If there are a number of spaces or applicants students are chosen depending on where they fit into an order of priority. This includes if the child is need of a special programme which only this school can provide, siblings of current students, siblings of past students, children of board employees and then all other students.

Not only is education in New Zealand readily available, but with some of the best teachers and schools in the world as well as help from government funding now is a great time to enrol and start an education in New Zealand.