This Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) has been prepared by the Ministry of Education (the Ministry). This RIS provides an analysis of options for establishing an enduring strategic direction for early childhood services and schools.

It forms part of a group of four RISs that recommend linked regulatory changes to set the strategic direction for the education system by letting early childhood services and schools know what New Zealand’s education objectives and medium-term priorities are, and how they contribute to, and are accountable for them. The group of four RIS include:

1. Establishing enduring goals or objectives for education for children and young people aged 0 to 18 years (this RIS)
2. Establishing a mechanism for government to set out its medium-term priorities for early childhood education and schooling
3. Clarifying Boards of Trustees’ roles and responsibilities
4. Improving accountability (planning and reporting) for schools.

This group of four RISs form part of a suite of RISs on amendments to update the Education Act 1989 (the Act). The analysis and resulting policy proposals focus on meeting the needs of schooling and early childhood education now and into the future.

The Ministry undertook a public consultation on the policy proposals for updating the Act between 2 November and 14 December 2015 and received over 1800 submissions. A report on the submissions is available on the Ministry’s website.

The Ministry considers this document to be a fair representation of available options.