Education Statistics of New Zealand 2007

Schools

• Education is compulsory for all children aged between six and sixteen years. Most children are enrolled at school on their fifth birthday. The New Zealand Education Act (1989) provides for free education in state schools administered by boards of trustees.
• At 1 July 2007 there were 2,463 state schools and 108 private schools, which receive some Government funding.
  
• Home schooling is possible for those who prefer it, on the condition that a standard of education similar to that available in a registered school is provided. At 1 July 2007 there were 6,473 students involved in home schooling.
• The Correspondence School provides education for students who cannot attend a school because they live in remote or inaccessible areas, because they are overseas, or because of illness or other special reasons.
• In the school sector an adult is defined as a student who is aged 19 years or over on 1 January of a year in which they attend school.
  
  

Figure 2 - Number of Students at 1 July 1998 - 2007

Enrolment Trends

At 1 July 2007 there were 759,906 students enrolled at schools in New Zealand. Between 2006 and 2007, enrolments in the school sector decreased by 855 (0.1 percent).

In the Primary sector (Years 1-8), enrolments decreased by 2,160 (0.4%) whilst enrolments in the Secondary sector (Years 9-15) increased by 1,305 (0.5%)

The roll of the Correspondence School has decreased by 327 students (5.6%) between 1 July 2006 and 1 July 2007.

Regional Trends

In Auckland, where 33.3 percent of the national school population attend schools, there was a 0.4 percent increase in rolls compared with 0.4 percent in July 2006 and 0.5 percent in July 2005. Auckland is the only region to have had growth in rolls for every year in the last ten years.

Tasman, Canterbury and Bay of Plenty were the only other regions with roll growth between 2006 and 2007, with 2.1 percent, 0.6 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

There were 12 regions whose rolls decreased between July 2006 and July 2007. Nelson and Southland had the largest decreases at -2.5 percent and -1.7 percent respectively. Southland is the only region to have had decreases for every year in the last ten years.

Ethnic Trends

The number of Asian domestic students attending New Zealand schools increased by 1.6 percent between July 2006 and July 2007. In July 2007 they accounted for 8.4 percent of the domestic school population, compared with 8.2 percent in July 2006.

The proportion of European/Pākehā students in the total domestic school population decreased slightly (from 59.0 percent in July 2006 to 58.3 percent in July 2007).

The proportion of Māori students has risen slightly from 21.6 percent in July 2006 to 21.9 percent in July 2007, and Pasifika students increased from 9.1 percent to 9.3 percent.

Domestic students exclude Foreign Fee-Paying students and NZAID scholarship students but include Exchange students.

International Students

At 1 July 2007 there were 10,869 international students attending New Zealand schools. An International student is one who is currently studying on a student permit or diplomatic passport. This excludes students from overseas with New Zealand citizenship or permanent residence or with Australian citizenship.

International students account for 1.4 percent of the school population. Of these students, 10,204 were foreign fee-paying, which was an increase of 5.8 percent between July 2006 and July 2007. The majority of foreign fee-paying students came from the Asian region.

School Leavers in 2006

56,895 students left school in 2006. Year 13 was the last year of schooling for 61.6 percent of school leavers.

The regions with the lowest proportion of students leaving school with little or no attainment are Otago with 6.9 percent, Southland with 8.2 percent and Nelson with 8.4 percent.

The regions with the highest proportion of students leaving school with University Entrance were Nelson with 39.2 percent, Otago with 38.5 percent and Auckland with 37.5 percent.