National would make students finish Year 11 before they can leave school

Students would have to finish Year 11 before leaving school from 2028 if National is re-elected. Every school would also start and end the year on the same dates.

Christopher Luxon and education spokesperson Erica Stanford announced the plan in Auckland's Northcote electorate on Sunday, 11 October. National released its full education manifesto the same day. 1News reported that about 5000 students a year would stay at school longer under the change. The election is on 7 November, and nothing changes unless National is back in government.

At the moment a student can leave once they turn 16, and many turn 16 partway through Year 11. Under National's plan, a student whose 16th birthday falls in Year 11 would have to stay until the end of that year. A student who turns 16 in Year 12 would still have to stay until their birthday, as now.

"We don't want 16-year-olds dropping out to sit on the couch," Luxon said, according to 1News. "Staying in school isn't a burden, it's a head start to higher incomes and more job opportunities."

Stanford tied the change to the qualification replacing NCEA. The new foundational award in literacy and numeracy is assessed at the end of Year 11, and from 2028 Year 11 will include compulsory English, maths and science, so the 2028 Year 11 cohort would be the first who had to stay to the end of the year.

"The foundational award in literacy and numeracy... is set at the end of the year and based off the whole year's learning. That's why we need them to stay to the end," she told 1News. RNZ's live blog quoted her saying students "should complete at least a full Year 11 of compulsory science, English and maths".

Early leaving exemptions would stay. Students going into a job, apprenticeship or training could still apply. Stanford said 1106 exemptions were approved in 2025, from a cohort of about 65,000. About 90% were for further education or training.

"It is quite a process," she said. "You need to fill in forms to show that you are going into further training or study. You can't just be going to nothing."

Labour leader Chris Hipkins didn't reject the goal. "I want to keep kids in education and training for as long as we can to give them the skills that they need," he told 1News. But he suggested looking at whether the exemption process should be made easier. "We don't want to say to kids who don't enjoy school and don't thrive at school that they shouldn't go into an apprenticeship. That's actually a really important outcome."

The harder case is the teenager who leaves to help support their family. Asked about them, Luxon said "we have enough support systems in place for kids to complete". He didn't say what those systems were or whether they would cover lost wages. Stanford's "you can't just be going to nothing" sets the bar, and neither leader said whether a part-time or casual job to help pay household bills would clear it.

National's announcement, as 1News and RNZ reported it, put no cost on keeping about 5000 more students a year in class, and didn't say where that figure comes from or how many extra Year 11 teachers and classrooms it would need.

The term-dates change would hit families more directly. Parents with children at a primary and a secondary school, or at two secondaries, are the ones who notice when the dates don't line up. Stanford said schools now have a start window of about two weeks. She said some schools had been closing at random times during the year and adding days at the end, which she said the law doesn't allow. She didn't say how many.

Hipkins doubted there was much to fix. "I'm not really sure what the problem is they're trying to fix, other than the fact that some schools, particularly secondary schools, choose different start and end dates... we pretty much have standardised term dates now," he said.

Labour made its own schools pitch on Sunday. RNZ reported it would bring back the former school lunch programme from the start of 2028, covering 244,400 students in the 1014 schools already included. Lunches would cost $5 a meal, or $6.50 for students in Years 9 to 13. Labour also committed to restoring rural school bus routes.