The country's first new charter school will open in Christchurch at the start of next year.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has announced Mastery Schools New Zealand - Arapaki, a partner school of Mastery Schools Australia (MSA), will open its doors at the beginning of term one.
"This announcement is a significant step in the Government's efforts to lift educational achievement in New Zealand," he said..
"Charter schools will make New Zealand's education system more flexible and responsive to family and student needs."
Seymour said MSA provided another option for students who were disengaged from the state system, and "the results speak for themselves".
"Student achievement in reading, mathematics and spelling occurred considerably faster than average. Attendance was 82 percent averaged across all campuses. While students progressed faster than average in reading, mathematics and spelling.
During an announcement at the new school site in Hillsborough on Wednesday, Seymour said planning for the new school had moved at "an extraordinary rate".
"As we know, particularly since Covid, a long term trend has accelerated a nd that is students not attending, for a whole range of reasons, and students not achieving," he said.
"And if there's one thing that determines the future of our country, it is the simple amount of knowledge that we transfer from one generation to the next.
"An educated population can overcome whatever challenges the world can and will throw at them."
A total of seven charter schools, including Arapaki, are to open in February.
Another number of schools had been told to "hold off" until 2026, or were still in the negotiating phase, Seymour said.
The Charter School Authorisation Board oversaw 78 applications in the first round.
"Not all of them can be accepted, that's just the reality,
"We don't have the money to start up that many schools that quickly."
Some state-owned schools had filed applications to convert, but this would have a lower financial impact, he said.
"You may see one or two next year but the process for doing that involves taking an existing school community with you.
"Understandably that takes more time."
Discussions with other charter school applicants are continuing and more schools are expected to be announced shortly.
Schools which will not be among the first to open will have an opportunity to be reconsidered next year, Seymour said.
MSA has opened five campuses since 2021.
It is a full-time school for year one-eight students who have various learning difficulties and are disengaged from mainstream schooling, Seymour said.
Act introduced charter schools to New Zealand in 2014 under the then-John Key National government.
They were abolished when Labour came to power in 2017 and became 'special character' state schools.
