The new government is expected to reverse school privatization trends

The new government headed by Labour leader Jacinda Ardern is expected to reverse school privatization trends. “Reactions among education groups ranged from celebratory champagne breakfasts to anxious uncertainty about who will fill ministerial roles and the policies they might pursue—or have dropped—following the coalition negotiations. (…) Teachers' unions and other professional bodies, so far in the dark about the new government's plans, were anticipating big changes in education based on common ground in the parties' policies and Labour's election campaign to ‘put the 'free' back into free education.’ Charter schools and National Standards are out, to the joy of teachers' unions that have spent nine years railing against what they saw as chronic underfunding, growing privatization, and the devaluing of the teaching profession under National.”