Education Act — free, secular and compulsory

Missionaries set up schools for Māori from 1816, and Te Ara notes that British settlers arriving in New Zealand were often less well educated than Māori. Early settler schools were unevenly spread and attendance was not compulsory. Between 1852 and 1876 the provincial governments funded and set up schools, with well-developed systems in parts of the South Island and weaker ones in the North. By 1870 there was free basic education in many places, but only about half of children aged five to 15 attended school. Central government ran a separate system for Māori: the Native Schools Act 1867 set up village primary schools under the Native Department, and Māori communities had to donate the land and, until 1871, contribute to the building and the teacher's salary. From the outset the schools' priority was teaching English.

With the provinces abolished in 1876, their different school systems had to be brought under the central government. Charles Bowen, minister of justice and a former chairman of the Canterbury education board, introduced a temporary act keeping the existing boards going only until December 1877 and worked towards a national system. He introduced the Education Bill on 24 July 1877. It provided free, compulsory state education run by a new Department of Education, regional education boards and local school committees. A clause allowing teachers to lead daily prayer and Bible reading was struck out in committee. Bowen lost office in October 1877, and his successor John Sheehan took the bill through the Legislative Council. It became law on 29 November 1877. Bowen had argued that the variety of 'energetic and powerful' denominations meant a national system could not offer religious teaching, and presented secularism as a way of avoiding conflict. Bishop Patrick Moran of Dunedin attacked the Act for denying funding to Catholic schools, and the Catholic campaign for state aid to private schools did not succeed until 1975.

The Act required Pākehā children aged seven to 13 to attend school, and children were entitled to attend between five and 15. It covered schooling up to Standard 6 (Year 8); secondary school remained for a select few. In practice it was far from compulsory: children had to attend only half the days the school was open, and rural parents often kept them home for harvesting and haymaking. The curriculum was reading, writing, arithmetic, history and geography, with sewing and needlework for girls and military drill for boys. The Department of Education set the curriculum and funded 12 regional education boards, which oversaw the school committees. Women could sit on these committees and did so at once; in the first year a woman was elected chair of the Selwyn district school committee. In 1901 Secretary of Education George Hogben raised the leaving age to 14, subject to a Standard 5 exemption.

The Act did not apply to Māori children, though they could attend the new schools if their parents wished. In 1879 the 57 native schools were moved to the Department of Education, and schooling became compulsory for Māori in 1894. Te Ara records that official attitudes in the native schools hardened against any use of the Māori language, and that in later years many Māori children were punished for speaking their first language at school. Te Ara describes the legislation and education policy that followed an 1847 requirement to teach in English as having 'a colossal negative impact' on te reo Māori. The Māori schools were finally transferred to the regional education boards in 1969.