Equity Index (EQI) is a way the
Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
uses to calculate equity funding for schools in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. It replaces the current
socioeconomic decile
In the New Zealand education system, decile is a key measure of socioeconomic status used to target funding and support schools. In academic contexts the full term "socioeconomic decile" or "socioeconomic decile band" may be used.
A school's dec ...
system, which will be phased out from January 2023.
Background
In September 2019 the
Sixth Labour Government announced the decile system would be replaced by a new "Equity Index" which would come into effect as early as 2021.
In mid-May 2022, the
2022 New Zealand budget
Budget 2022, dubbed the Wellbeing Budget 2022, is the New Zealand budget for fiscal year 2022/23, presented to the New Zealand House of Representatives, House of Representatives by Finance Minister (New Zealand), Finance Minister, Grant Robertso ...
allocated $8 million for the capital cost and $293 million for operating costs for the new Equity Index, but no date of introduction was given.
Implementation
In July 2022, their Equity Index rating numbers were advised to New Zealand (public) schools to be introduced next year, with the amount of equity funding for each school to be announced in September 2022. The Statistics Department utilised 37 socio-economic factors for each pupil, including both parents' educational levels, imprisonment data and benefit history plus Oranga Tamariki notifications and student transience to calculate a school index number between 344 and 569 for each school, with a national average of 463 and a higher index number meaning more EQI index funding. The New Zealand educational system was claimed to be "one of the world's least equal education systems" (actually 33 out of 38 in the OECD).
See also
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Child poverty in New Zealand
New Zealand suffers from one of the worst rates of child poverty in the Western world. Child poverty affects 1 in 5, or roughly 210,500 children in New Zealand, as of the year ended June 2020 according to Statistics New Zealand. The number in 20 ...
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Social class in New Zealand
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Socioeconomic decile
In the New Zealand education system, decile is a key measure of socioeconomic status used to target funding and support schools. In academic contexts the full term "socioeconomic decile" or "socioeconomic decile band" may be used.
A school's dec ...
References
Education in New Zealand
Socio-economic statistics
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