If you aren’t a New Zealand citizen or resident then you don’t have the right to a free education. You have to pay the fees that the school has set for foreign students.

But you can arrange short-term free schooling. If you are a foreign student your parents or guardians can ask the school principal to agree to let you attend the school for free. Then, within 4 weeks of you starting at that school your parents or guardians can ask the Ministry of Education to agree to let you stay at the school for free.

This is so that you can start school while you are applying to get residency in New Zealand. Once residency is granted you become a “domestic student”. Then you have the same rights to a free education as New Zealand citizens and other residents so you can stay at the school you are attending for free.