Almost 40 Christchurch schools are still in need of repair, more than 10 years after the earthquake.
The Christchurch Schools Rebuild programme began in 2013. To date, the Ministry of Education has refurbished, rebuilt or built from scratch 76 schools out of the 115 damaged by the quake.
The programme was initially scheduled to be finished by the end of this year but that's been pushed out to 2025.
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Education Minister Chris Hipkins said progress is being made, albeit more slowly than expected.
“The rebuild programme itself has done incredibly well like a lot of building and construction projects at the moment there's a lot of pressure in that area, not every project is being finished exactly when we'd expect it to.
“We're seeing those delays right the way across the building and construction sector but we're absolutely committed to making sure that it gets finished.”
And after many delays, Pareawa Banks Ave school opened on Wednesday.
Pareawa Banks Avenue principal Toni Burnside said several options were explored before settling on a complete rebuild at the old Shirley Boys High School site.
“It's been a long time coming, it's been a lot of hard work, thousands of decisions but this here is what it's all been about.”
Student Oscar Black said he was initially anxious about his new classroom, but the finished result was a pleasant surprise.
“I was a bit nervous about coming here but now I see all settled in and we can definitely work here nicely, better than in the old school cause it's way better.”
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