Funnily enough, I had kids in NZ schools from 2008 to 2017! Running the full gammet of primary, intermediate, and Secondary.
National (as with their equivalent of the Tories over here), is not particularly school or teacher friendly.
And of course, we had a series of natural disasters, particularly in Christchurch, which severely impacted schools, and was used as an opportunity by National to close and amalgamate schools not in their favoured areas.
However, schools in my experience (I was on the Board of Trustees at one of them), and in my kids experience (who have also experienced secondary comp' over here, is that the facilities are nowhere near as run down, poorly equipped, and limited in space and playing fields.
Personally, because my kids are academically inclined, they have thrived under the very challenging and demanding UK curriculum. However, both they and we have observed a complete lack of regard for the students as human beings, particularly with health challenges, either mental or physical. That pressure is applied by the DofE and Ofstead, with the school's forced to push it down to the students and their parents.
Culturally, in NZ, schools tend to be a lot more laid back, with a lot more emphasis on things other than academics, such as sport, cultural opportunities, such as kapa haka, etc.
Which is not to say that like the UK, schools and kids aren't teeming with mental and physical health issues in NZ, far too often unaddressed.
There is also institutional racism in schools, which exacerbates a very bad tail of poor performance academically, for Maori and Pasifika students, which in turn, skews international educational performance.