An internal Ministry of Education document indicates it will struggle to assess school charters, including targets using the national standards in reading, writing and maths.
It is prompting a group of school boards opposed to the standards to reconsider its protest action.
Schools have been asked to provide their charters at the start of the 2011 school year in late January or early February.
The ministry document says it has 25 working days to process the charters and that could create a significant amount of work for its regional offices.
The spokesperson for a group of 270 school boards opposed to the standards, Island Bay School principal Perry Rush, doubts the ministry will be able to cope.
Mr Rush says the group had planned to defer sending its charters in but will now consider options, including sending all of the charters on the same day.
