School leavers with NCEA Level 2 or above

Indicator Description

Percentage of school leavers with an NCEA Level 2 qualification or above.

What We Have Found

Sixty-six percent of school leavers achieved at least NCEA Level 2 in 2007, a 25% increase from 2003.

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.  The main qualification available to secondary school students is the NCEA, which encompasses a wide range of learning.  NCEA enables students to undertake multilevel study to attain credits, perhaps at different levels in any one year, towards an NCEA qualification.  Students can attain credits through internal and external assessment, and they can accumulate these credits both within and across years.  Educational and job prospects will be limited for those who leave school without Level 2 NCEA.

The attainment of an upper secondary school qualification is linked to labour force status and incomes.  In 2007 New Zealanders with no qualifications had an unemployment rate over 64% higher than those whose highest qualification was a school qualification.  Wage and salary earners, whose highest qualification was a school qualification, earned 35% more per hour on average than those with no qualification (OECD 2007).

How We Are Going

In 2007, 65.5% of school leavers achieved at least NCEA Level 2, a 24% increase from 2003.  Girls performed better than boys, with 70.2% attaining at least NCEA Level 2 compared to 60.9% of boys.  Almost sixty percent of leavers with NCEA Level 2 or above achieved at least a University Entrance standard qualification.

Percentage of school leavers with an NCEA Level 2 qualification or above, by ethnic group (1993 to 2007)

 

1. Due to methodological changes in the allocation of attainment levels in 2004, for leavers achieving a qualification between little or no formal attainment and UE standard, the percentages of leavers with at least NCEA Level 2 in 2004 is not comparable with other years, and has been omitted.
2. A direct comparison can not be made between rates up to and including 2002 with rates for 2003 on, due to the change in qualification structure.

Asian students had the highest proportion of school leavers attaining at least NCEA Level 2 (84.2%), 19% higher than the percentage of European/Pākehā (70.6%).  There is a substantial gap between Pasifika (56.0%) and Māori (43.9%) students in attaining at least NCEA Level 2.  Some of this difference is due to the higher retention rates for Pasifika compared with Māori – 81% of 2007 Pasifika school leavers stayed to at least the end of Year 12 compared with only 61% of Māori.  However, the percentage of Māori school leavers with at least NCEA Level 2 has increased by 52% between 2003 and 2007, while the rate for Pasifika increased by 33%.  This compares with a 23% increase for European/Pākehā over the same time period, implying that the disparities between ethnic groups are reducing.

Percentage of school leavers with an NCEA Level 2 qualification or above, by ethnic group and school quintile (2007)

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 2 qualification.  Schools in the lowest quintile (deciles 1 and 2) draw their students from communities with the highest degree of socio-economic disadvantage.  In 2007, 82.0% of students from schools in the highest quintile (deciles 9 and 10) left school with at least an NCEA Level 2 qualification.  This was 71% higher than the percentage of the lowest quintile (48.1%).  This gap has narrowed since 2006 when students from schools in the highest quintile were almost twice as likely to leave school with at least an NCEA Level 2 qualification, compared to students from schools in the lowest quintile

Where to Find Out More

To obtain other information about school leavers consider indicators:

• School leavers with little or no attainment
• School leavers with NCEA Level 1 or above
  
• School leavers with a university entrance standard

The Ministry of Education has established an Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme to systematically identify, evaluate, analyse, synthesise and make accessible, relevant evidence linked to a range of learner outcomes. Evidence about what works for this indicator can be found in:

• Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis
• Effective Pedagogy in Mathematics/Pangarau: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration

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/Pangarau: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

OECD (2005). Education at a Glance: OECD indicators 2005. Paris, OECD.

 

Related Pages on Education Counts

The NCEA theme page provides links to data, publications and indicators based on NCEA and other qualifications on the national qualification framework.