Attendance at a school is compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 16, although most children start school on their 5th birthday and a significant number of students spend 13 years in the school system.
Educational institutions consists of the following categories:
The Student Loan Scheme[?] is available to all New Zealand permanent residents and can cover course fees, course related expenses and can also provide a weekly living allowance for full time students. The loan must be repaid at a rate dependent on income and repayments are normally recovered via the income tax system by wage deductions. Low income earners and students in full time study can have the interest on their loans written off.
Student Allowances, which are non-refundable grants to students of limited means, are means tested and the weekly amount granted depends on residential and citizenship qualifications, age, location, marital status, dependent children as well as personal, spousal or parental income.
Funding for Tertiary Institutions has been criticised recently due to high fees and funding not keeping pace with costs or inflation. Some also point out that high fees are leading to skills shortages in New Zealand as high costs discourage participation and graduating students seek well paying jobs off shore to pay for their student loans debts. As a result education funding has been undergoing an ongoing review in recent years.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump