Early leaving exemptions

Indicator Description

Proportion of 15 year-old students enrolled who obtain an early leaving exemption.

What We Have Found

Why This Is Important

In order to achieve, students must stay at school, experience a sense of belonging and support, and stay interested and engaged in learning.  All schools face the constant challenge of ensuring that all students feel they belong and are encouraged to participate at school.  This is the foundation of motivation, interest and pleasure in learning.

School is compulsory for all students aged between 6 and 16 years.  However, parents of students aged 15 years may apply to the Ministry of Education for an exemption from schooling on the basis of educational problems, conduct, or the unlikelihood of the student gaining benefit from attending available schools.  Parents are required to give details about training programmes or employment that the student would move on to in the event of an exemption being granted.

These young people leaving school without qualifications may have difficulty performing in the workforce and may face difficulties in terms of life-long learning, or returning to formal study in later years.  An uneducated population possibly creates an inability of a workforce to meet labour demand.

A considerable number of research studies also show that there is a strong correlation between early school leavers and unemployment and/or lower incomes, which are in turn generally related to poverty and dependence on income support.  In New Zealand, recent data show that those with no qualifications have unemployment rates far exceeding those with qualifications, and the lowest median incomes.

How We Are Going

Both the rates of early leaving exemption applications received, and those approved, rose over the first few years of the decade. However, there was only small changes in the both the application and approval rates of early leaving exemptions between 2002 and 2006. In 2006, 70 per 1,000 15 year-old students applied for an early leaving exemption, with 65 per 1,000 students being granted an early leaving exemption.

Early leaving exemption application approval and decline rates (2000 to 2007)

In May 2007, the Ministry of Education strengthened its early-leaving application and approval process in order to reduce the number of early leaving exemptions, and the associated social and economic disadvantages that face those students who leave school early.  The process involved:

• imposing a stricter interpretation of the early-leaving legislative criteria, which sets a very high threshold for early-leaving eligibility
• ensuring direct contact between parents and Ministry staff at the first stage in the early-leaving process, to actively dissuade early-leaving and to support parents to find ways of keeping their children engaged in learning, and
• encouraging alternatives to early-leaving, such as a combination of school- and work-based learning.

The evidence so far suggests that these approaches have been highly successful.  The rate of demand for early leaving exemptions declined by 28% from 2006 to 2007, while the percentage of applications that were declined by the Ministry of Education increased from 6.6% in 2006 to 36% in 2007.  The net effect is that there was a 50% reduction from 2006 in the rate of early leaving exemptions, with 32 per 1,000 15 year-olds being granted an early leaving exemption in 2007.

Early leaving exemption rates by ethnic group (2000 to 2007)

The decline in the rates of early leaving exemptions between 2006 and 2007 was similar for Māori and European/Pākehā, with 51% and 52% decreases respectively.  The reduction in the early leaving exemption rate for Pasifika was less marked with a 40% decrease.

However, Māori students still have disproportionately high rates of early leaving exemptions compared with other ethnic groups.  In 2007, the early leaving exemption rate for Māori students (73 per 1,000 15 year-old students) was 2.2 times higher than the rate for Pasifika (33 per 1,000 15 year-old students), and 3.2 times as high as that for European/Pākehā (23 per 1,000 15 year-old students).  In contrast, there were almost no Asian students getting early leaving exemptions with a rate of only 1 per 1,000 15 year-old students.

There is a clear correlation between the socio-economic mix of the school the student attended and early leaving exemption rates.  Schools in the lowest quintile (deciles 1 and 2) draw their students from communities with the highest degree of socio-economic disadvantage.  In 2007 the early leaving exemption rate for students from these schools was almost 6 times higher than the rate for students in the highest quintile (deciles 9 and 10).  The early leaving exemption rates were highest for Māori in each quintile, while rates for European/Pākehā students were considerably higher than Pasifika students in all quintiles except for quintiles 2 and 3 where the rates for European/Pākehā were slightly lower.

Early leaving exemption rates, by ethnic group and school quintile (2007)

Note: There were insufficient numbers of Asian students receiving an early leaving exemption in each quintile to display the results.

Two-thirds of all early leaving exemptions were for males in 2007, with a rate of 42 per 1,000 students.  This compares with the female rate of 22 per 1,000 students.

A Training Provider course was the most popular destination for a 15-year old who received an early leaving exemption, with just over three-quarters (76%) of all early leavers going there.  A further 18% of all early leavers went into full time employment, with the remainder going into a Polytechnic course, a University course or another destination.  This pattern has been fairly consistent since 2000.

Where To Find Out More

To obtain information about other forms of student disengagement, consider indicators:

• Truancy from school
• Stand-downs and suspensions from school
• Exclusions and expulsions from school

Unemployment and income are interrelated with school qualification. To obtain information on unemployment and income consider the indicators:

• Unemployment rates by highest qualification
• Impact of education on income

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
• The Complexity of Community and Family Influences on Children's Achievement in New Zealand: Best Evidence Synthesis

References

Alton-Lee, A. (2003). Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Biddulph, F., Biddulph, J. and Biddulph, C. (2003). The Complexity of Community and Family Influences on Children's Achievement in New Zealand: Best Evidence Synthesis Wellington, Ministry of Education.

Brooks, M., et al. (1997). Under-age School Leaving: A Report to the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme. Hobart: National Clearing House for Youth Studies.