School leavers with NCEA Level 1 or above

What We Have Found

82% of school leavers achieved at least NCEA Level 1, and 86% percent achieved NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy in 2010.

Date Updated: August 2011

Indicator Description

Percentage of school leavers with an NCEA Level 1 qualification or above.

Why This Is Important

A formal school qualification is a measure of the extent to which young adults have completed a basic prerequisite for higher education and training and many entry-level jobs.  In 2002 the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Level 1 replaced School Certificate as the principal qualification to complete the first stage of upper-secondary education, and serves as a foundation for further study and/or employment.  NCEA Level 1, as with all levels of NCEA, encompasses a wide range of learning.  Students can attain credits through internal and external assessment, and they can accumulate these credits both within and across years.  Students are also able to undertake study at other NCEA levels to attain credits while studying for an NCEA Level 1 qualification.

The attainment of an upper secondary school qualification is linked to labour force status and incomes.  In 2008 New Zealanders with no qualifications had an unemployment rate over 42% higher than those whose highest qualification was a school qualification (OECD 2010).

How We Are Going

NCEA Level 1 or Above

New Zealand schools are now using a new method of electronic student roll collection.  This has enabled the collection of disaggregated school leaver data from 2008 onward.  For the 2010 school leaver indicators, this has allowed the identification of school leavers previously not identified and for ethnic group analysis to take account of all the ethnic groups a student affiliates with.

When accounting for these new inclusions in 2010, 82.0% of school leavers attained at least NCEA Level 1.  Female school leavers (84.3%) achieved at a higher rate than their male counterparts (79.9%). 

Figure 1: Percentage of school leavers with NCEA Level 1 or above, by ethnic group (2010)

Note:  For this graph students who have been identified in more than one ethnic group have been counted in each ethnic group.

When accounting for these new inclusions and looking at total response ethnic group in 2010, Asian students had the highest proportion of school leavers attaining at least NCEA Level 1 (91.4%), which was higher than the percentage of European/Pākehā (86.5%).  Pasifika (75.6%) and Māori (65.8%) had the lowest rates.

Figure 2:  Percentage of school leavers which an NCEA Level 1 qualification or above, by ethnic group (2002 to 2010) 

Notes:
1. Due to methodological changes in the allocation of attainment levels in 2003 and 2004, for leavers achieving a qualification between little or no formal
    attainment and UE standard, the percentages of leavers with at least NCEA Level 1 in both 2003 and 2004 are not comparable with other years, and
    have been omitted.
2. In order to allow a comparison over time school leavers are defined using the historical paper-based collection definition and ethnicity is prioritised.

For a trend comparison of recent years the school leavers that were newly included in 2010 need to be excluded to allow a fair comparison with previous years.  Since 2002, there has been an increase in school leavers with NCEA Level 1 or above, from 67.0% in 2002 to 87.0% in 2010.

The largest proportional increases in those attaining at least NCEA Level 1 has been in Māori school leavers, with an increase of 69% between 2002 (43.9%) and 2010 (74.3%), and Pasifika school leavers, with an increase of 41% between 2002 (59.1%) and 2010 (83.1%).  This can be compared to the non-Māori and non-Pasifika school leavers, who had a smaller proportional increase of 24% between 2002 (73.3%) and 2010 (90.8%).  Since 2002, the disparities between the different ethnic groups have reduced.

Figure 3: Percentage of school leavers with NCEA Level 1 and above, by school decile and school (2010)

A clear positive correlation can be seen between the socio-economic mix of the school the student attended and the percentage of school leavers attaining at least an NCEA Level 1 qualification.  Schools in the lowest deciles draw their students from communities with the highest degree of socio-economic disadvantage.

In 2010, 93.8% of students from schools in the highest deciles (deciles 9 and 10) left school with at least an NCEA Level 1 compared to 69.9% of students from the lowest deciles (deciles 1 and 2).  

There is a large variation in the percentage of school leavers attaining at least an NCEA Level 1 amongst schools within each decile.

NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy

In 2010, 85.8% of school leavers achieved NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy.  Female school leavers (87.9%) achieved at a higher rate than their male counterparts (83.8%). 

Asian students had the highest proportion of school leavers achieving NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy with 92.6% in 2010, which was higher than the percentage of European/Pākehā (89.6%).  Pasifika (80.2%) and Māori (72.7%) had the lowest rates.

A clear positive correlation can be seen between the socio-economic mix of the school the student attended and the percentage of school leavers achieving NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy.  In 2010, 95.2 % of students from schools in deciles 9 and 10 left school achieving NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy compared to 76.1% of students from deciles 1 and 2.
 
There is a large variation in the percentage of school leavers achieving NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy amongst schools within each decile.


Figure 4: Percentage of school leavers with NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy, by ethnic group (2010)

Note:  For this graph students who identified in more than one ethnic group have been counted in each ethnic group

References

• Alton-Lee, A. (2003). Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
• Anthony, G., and Walshaw, M. (2007). Effective Pedagogy in Mathematics/Pāngarau: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
• OECD (2010). Education at a Glance 2010: OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD.