Invercargill’s Southern Institute of Technology is the home of zero fees – it was the first tertiary training organisation in New Zealand to offer zero fees to students. That idea has since been adopted further afield, but SIT has continued to be an innovative force in education for around 9,000 students.
Rather than learning for learning’s sake, it has been active in working with local industry to provide relevant and tailored training programmes. Its trade skills courses, for example, include aluminium boat building, designed specifically to meet the needs of two Invercargill manufacturers.
The Dunedin College of Education has an Invercargill campus offering teacher training.
Schools here offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities in both sport and arts. Because they are governed by boards of trustees, which include parents, schools reflect the needs and values of the communities they service. All schools welcome inquiries.
At secondary level, there are 12 schools to choose from, six of them in Invercargill city. They provide a range of education choices, from co-educational, single sex and Catholic options, with segregated boarding available for both boys and girls.
The province has 84 primary schools, as well as four middle/junior high schools.
School buses service rural areas, taking children to and from their nearest schools each day.
There is plenty of choice for pre-schoolers too, with a variety of crèche and day care facilities, state-run kindergartens and play centres.
