Minister of Education Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
The minister of education's plan to fix school buildings has yet to go to Cabinet.
Erica Stanford ordered an inquiry seven months ago to produce the plan, saying delays and cost blow-outs on projects were "'bordering on crisis".
She received the inquiry's report two months ago.
In a statement to RNZ, Stanford said she would take her decisions to Cabinet by the end of September, in response to an inquiry by former Cabinet minister Murray McCully.
The inquiry was completed quicker than expected but its recommendations needed careful weighing up, she said.
"It has been complex work, and it is important to get it right."
She said she had already told the Ministry of Education to make improvements, and that was having an impact.
The faster approach of building classrooms offsite was used two thirds of the time early this year, way more than the 16 percent rate at the end of 2023, she said.
An Official Information Act request from RNZ for the release of the McCully report was refused.
In February, Stanford castigated ministry officials for over-promising and under-delivering, and what she said was poor communication with schools.
She said her expectations, which had been laid out to the ministry, were for more transparency and speed, innovation plus standardisation, and more reporting back on timelines.
"The ministry ... established a more consistent data-driven and nationally consistent approach to prioritising investment that has led to the programme of investment being made through Budget 24."
The Budget assigned $1.5b over four years for education and kōhanga reo property, about a third of it to expand schools to cope with 8000 extra students.
