The Education Minister has stepped in to prevent a plan to remove English as a Second Language funding from students in years zero and one in the second half of this year.
An internal Education Ministry email seen by Q+A gave advance notice that "Year 0/1 students will not be eligible for ESOL funding in Period 2 this year".
The notice, sent on May 8, said it came "after exploring all funding options for Period 2 (terms 3 and 4) 2026".
The ministry argued it was providing "strong early literacy support" and that ESOL funding would not be lost overall by students – rather, it would just kick in later.
Q+A made Erica Stanford aware of the email ahead of her Sunday morning appearance, and she "talked to my officials about that" before going on air.
"I think that's the ministry getting slightly ahead of themselves. They are reversing out of that," Stanford said.
"This is the ministry, right? So sometimes they can go a little bit rogue."
She said it was an example of why she felt the need to "micromanage" her ministry.
The ministry notice included the detail that demand for ESOL teaching is up 133% over the last decade.
Stanford denied this showed funding had not kept pace with demand, saying, "I have put more money into ESOL in my budgets".
"What they should be investigating is potentially shifting funding from ESOL into structured literacy," which Stanford said would lead to better outcomes.
"I understand where they're coming from, and we've had discussions about - what does it look like if you use structured literacy interventions, which we know is the most powerful way of teaching a child to read."
New qualification details unveiled
Stanford's interview followed the Government's release of key details of the new senior secondary qualifications set to replace NCEA, outlining how students will achieve the certificates, how they will be graded, and what subjects they must take.
Under the new system, students will study at least five subjects in Years 12 and 13, needing to pass a minimum of three subjects to gain each qualification, alongside a compulsory literacy and numeracy Foundational Award benchmarked at Year 11.
Certificates will show how many subjects a student has passed and the grades they achieved, replacing NCEA’s aggregate credit totals with a clearer record of performance. Students who pass more subjects will have that recognised directly on their certificate.
A new six-point grading scale — ranging from A+ to E — will apply across all subjects, with a C grade required to pass.
Stanford told Q+A that the new system would give confidence to "parents that their children are on the right track".
"When you look back at NCEA, the fact that we were able to graduate young people who are not literate and numerate, and they still got a qualification, that showed how far we had drifted."
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of NZ on Air
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