Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced an additional $301 million boost for the rebuild of earthquake-damaged Christchurch schools.
The programme in Christchurch might be a template for repairing flood damaged schools in the North Island, Hipkins said.
On his first visit to Christchurch since becoming prime minister, Hipkins visited one of the schools still in the midst of its rebuild process and to celebrate the progress being made.
Eighty-one schools across Christchurch have now had rebuild or refurbishment work completed since the Christchurch School Rebuild Programme was started in 2013, but 27 are still in the midst of the process, and two are yet to even start.
Heaton Intermediate School is one of the schools midway through the process, but on Friday they celebrated the opening of the first set of new classrooms, with Hipkins doing the ribbon-cutting honours.
He also announced the government would make what he hoped was a final increase in funding of $301m, bringing the total spent of the programme to $1.6bn.
Christchurch central MP Duncan Webb and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins are given a tour of the rebuild work at Heaton Normal Intermediate School by students George Thompson, Alex Binnie and principal James Griggs on 3 March, 2023. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Graham
The lessons from Christchurch's post-quake experience would be useful when dealing with flood-damaged schools, he said.
"There has been some significant damage to some of the schools, so we will be able to draw on the lessons from the Christchurch experience and making sure we get those schools back up and running as quickly as possible first and foremost and then rebuilding so that they are resilient and sustainable and that they have the kind of learning environment that we want for the future."
Following the Christchurch earthquake, the government at the time initially said it would close 13 schools and merge 18.
In the end, nine schools were closed and 15 schools merged.
The Ministry of Education later apologised to Christchurch schools for flaws in the process.
Hipkins said they would learn from the mistakes made as well.
"I certainly think some of those very early lessons about the damage that can be done to community cohesion when you try and push through an amalgamation process right in the heart of an emergency response, we certainly wouldn't be trying that in any other part of the country."
Heaton Normal Intermediate School principal James Griggs said after 10 years in earthquake-damaged classrooms, it was great to be in state-of-the-art rooms.
"Classrooms which are warm dry, healthy, acoustically sound, where lighting has been considered, oxygen levels have been considered, when all those things have been considered in a classroom, and also just having a more a pleasant learning environment, it will make a huge difference for our students."
PM visits Muslim community in Christchurch for first time as leader
Minister Megan Woods and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins visit Al Noor to meet with the Christchurch Muslim community on 3 March, 2023. Photo: RNZ / Nathan Mckinnon
Hipkins also made time to visit Al Noor mosque in Christchurch - one of the two sites which were the centre of the terrorist attack on 15 March, four years ago.
This was his first chance to meet with the community since he became prime minister.
The community clearly had a particular interest in the government's work on the recommendations coming out of the royal commission into the attacks, he said, adding he was keen to hear their feedback.
He also wanted to reassure the Muslim community in Christchurch that although there had been a change of prime minister, the government's commitment to the community had not changed.
