There's confidence New Zealand schools are turning a corner on literacy skills.

The Education Minister says data shows 58 percent of new entrant students are at-or-above phonics expectations after 20 weeks at school - up from 36 percent in Term One.

The number exceeding expectations is more than double Term One's figure.

Erica Stanford says she wants 90 percent of kids to achieve curriculum level.

"As teachers become more confident and capable with explicit teaching and the new curriculum and structured literacy, the results will get better and better and better...we see that overseas."

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