Wigram MP Megan Woods has challenged the Government over the scrapping of the Greater Christchurch Education Renewal Programme, raising concerns that schools in her electorate may be left without the funding they were relying on.
The $4.330 million funding cut was revealed in Budget 2025 under a line item titled Greater Christchurch Education Renewal Programme – Reprioritised Funding.
The document confirms the savings initiative “redirects funding by stopping the Greater Christchurch Education Renewal Programme,” which had supported Christchurch schools following the Canterbury earthquakes.
According to the budget, the funding had been used to “strengthen school leadership, enhance student and staff wellbeing, and foster collaboration with mana whenua.”
The Government said the support was “no longer required for earthquake recovery.”
During a discussion on Chris Lynch Media with Minister for the South Island James Meager, Woods questioned what the removal of this funding meant for schools that were still counting on support to complete their rebuilds.
“I did notice in the budget the rest of the funding for the Christchurch schools rebuild project has been scrapped,” Woods said. “So what does this mean in terms of schools and their ability to build? Because I know a lot of schools locally in my electorate were still counting on having funding from that. So what are the on-the-ground implications of that funding being scratched?”
In response, Meager said, “There’s several hundred million dollars more in the budget for school rebuilds, and you’ll see a few announcements around Canterbury in the next few weeks on that.”
He sai the Government was also prioritising funding for Learning Support Coordinators. “For the first time, we’re actually properly funding Learning Support Coordinators in schools, so every single school around the country now has access to one.”
Woods pressed further, pointing out the difference between general education funding and the targeted support previously set aside specifically for Canterbury schools as part of the post-earthquake rebuild.
“This isn’t just the normal five-year maintenance projects. This is the money that was specifically there for Canterbury schools in the rebuild, and that is a specific savings item in the summary of estimates,” she said.
Meager responded that Christchurch schools still needing to be rebuilt would not miss out. “The schools in Christchurch that need to be rebuilt will be rebuilt because there’s hundreds of millions of dollars more in the budget for school property,” he said.
He credited Associate Education Minister Erica Stanford for driving down building costs. “She’s done a really great job about reducing the cost of building those buildings.
“We’re going modular, we’re going standard across the country. We’re going to build more classrooms for schools in and around Christchurch, Rolleston, Lincoln, and Central Otago – all the places in the South Island that need school growth,” Meager said.
