Rural schools eligible for $255 million upgrades

Rural schools will benefit from a massive $255 million investment announced by the Government today, September 22.

It’s part of a $413 million package to deliver better infrastructure to schools which Education Minister Erica Stanford says will be accelerated to get the maintenance work “underway sooner”.

“Rural schools represent nearly half of all state schools nationwide,” she says.

The funding for isolated, small and rural schools, is an additional investment to the Ministry of Education’s Ngā Iti Kahurangi (NIK) programme, which supports the maintenance of all 934 rural schools across New Zealand.

Stanford says the funding boost will expand the programme’s scope of works to include vinyl flooring, heating, repairs and maintenance to windows, roofing (including flashings, gutters and downpipes) and external building fabric.

She says the package will also create more immediate work for builders and tradies across New Zealand.

“This will enable schools to do significant maintenance over the coming summer holidays, and support more rural and isolated schools to upgrade their infrastructure,” Stanford says.

“This is great news for schools and communities that will benefit for better learning spaces, but it will also power up the trade and construction sectors, creating a steady flow of jobs for builders, plumbers, roofers and more.”

She says the Government is also allocating $100 million over the next five years to accommodate more schools requiring urgent and essential infrastructure works.

“Thanks to increased investment in maintenance through Budget 24 and 25, school property can now allocate more funding to schools to deal with urgent property maintenance that they can’t afford,” Stanford says.