Many community groups and Pacific providers have been working to support Pacific learners and families to engage in education during the COVID-19 response and recovery, and to make sure Pacific learners and families have access to the services and support.
The Pacific Education Support Fund is available for community providers, groups and organisations to help learners and their families to meet education-related and wellbeing needs arising from and/or exacerbated by COVID-19.
Schools, Early Learning Services and Tertiary Institutions are not eligible for funding from the Pacific Education Support Fund; please refer to the Pacific Innovation Fund, here.
Education-related needs are the needs and supports required to ensure Pacific learners can engage in meaningful education. This includes supporting wellbeing and growing meaningful relationships. Examples of initiatives could include:
The Pacific Education Support Fund is part of the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund and invests $39.7m over four years (2020/21 to 2023/24) to broker support for Pacific learners and families to access education.
$6m will be available in five regions in 2021/22. There is no maximum amount of funding you can apply for, but it must be within the amount allocated to your region. The funding has been distributed, as follows:
The funding allocated to Auckland reflects the significant number of Pacific learners in the region and the impact of COVID-19 Alert level changes. The five regions have a large proportion of the Pacific learner population, based upon the proportion and total number of Pacific learners.
To apply for the current funding, you must meet the following criteria:
Providers who have existing contracts with the Ministry and providers who don’t have existing contracts with the Ministry can both apply.
Providers who were successful for the 2020/21 round of funding are eligible to apply again. The assessment process will take into consideration the progress you have made from the first round. You will need to provide details on the funding you have received in the application form.
You can apply for funding to extend or build on your current project. You will need to provide details on the funding you have received for your project in the application form.
You can only submit one application per region as the lead applicant to the Support Fund. You can participate in more than one application as a partner or associate; however, providers cannot apply multiple times to one region as the lead provider/group of a project.
The Pacific Education Support Fund will not fund the following:
Eligible applications will be reviewed against the following criteria:
We are interested in:
You will be expected to report on progress of your project. More information will be made available on reporting requirements to successful applicants.
Fäeag Rotuma
Gagana Sāmoa
Gagana Tokelau
Te Taetae ni Kiribati
Lea Faka Tonga
te 'gana Tuvalu
te reo Māori Kuki 'Āirani
Vagahau Niue
Vosa vaka-Viti
To help develop your proposal, the application guidance takes you through all the questions in the online application forms below. Reading it will help you prepare your application.
Application guidance - all regions
This video provides a step by step guideline to assist you with your application.
Transcript of the Pacific Education Support Fund video guidance
If you require assistance with the application process in your Pacific language, contact us: Pacific.Supportfund@education.govt.nz
You can use this template to submit your work plan or submit an alternative format.
You can use this template to submit your budget, or you may decide to submit a different format.
Applications for the Pacific Education Support Fund are open from 10 March 2021 to 19 April 2021.
You will be notified about the outcome of your application in June 2021. You may be contacted after your application has been submitted if we have any queries relating to your submission.
You can apply for funding to be spent in one year by the end of June 2022 or to be spent in two years by the end of June 2023. You will be notified about the outcome of your application in June 2021.
Make sure you meet all of the eligibility requirements and download the questions before you apply.
If you have questions that are not answered in the information provided email: Pacific.Supportfund@education.govt.nz
DISCLAIMER FOR SUCCESSFUL APPLICATIONS:
If applications meet the criteria to be assessed and are reviewed as successful to progress to funding agreement stage there will be several due diligence requirements that will need to be met, these are likely to include, among others: