The government is going into this week's Budget under massive pressure to boost its $16 billion-a-year spend on early childhood, school and tertiary education.
It still has unfulfilled election promises to deliver and it is considering potentially costly reforms right across the sector.
Expectations are highest in schools with nearly 50,000 teachers and principals going on strike tomorrow for better pay and workloads.
To find out how schools are coping, RNZ education correspondent, John Gerritsen, went to Karori West Normal School, a Wellington school of 547 children.
