School Roll Summary Report: July 2006

School Rolls

The following roll statistics include regular students, adult students, alternative education students, NZAID (formerly MFAT) students and foreign fee-paying students.

The overall roll has been declining since 2004. At 1 July 2006 the total number of students attending New Zealand schools was 760,761. This was a decrease of 0.3 per cent (2,029 students) since July 2005. See Figure 1 for the trend in total numbers of students since 1991. The overall roll decline is explained by a decrease in Years 1-8, where student numbers dropped by 0.5 per cent. In Years 9-15, there was a 0.1 per cent increase in student numbers.

Figure 1 - Total Number of Students at 1 July 1991 - 2006

The number of foreign fee-paying students (9,645) decreased by 14.6 per cent (1,654 students).

The number of adult students (3,673) in New Zealand schools has decreased in recent years. There has been a 25.8 per cent decrease since July 2005. There was also a 25.0 per cent decrease in the previous year.

Rolls by region

In 2006, the total number of students in most regions decreased. However, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch experienced small increases in their rolls. The Auckland region had 33 per cent of the school population in July 2006. There was a 0.4 per cent growth in rolls in this region compared with 0.5 per cent in July 2005 and 0.6 per cent in July 2004.

Changes in regional rolls are summarised below in Table 1:

Table 1: Total Number of Students by Region at 1 July 2004 to 2006

Region	2004	2005	2006	Difference 2004-05		Difference 2005-06
				Number	%	Number	%
Northland	30,102	29,791	29,730	-311	-1.0%	-61	-0.2%
Auckland	249,998	251,309	252,427	1,311	0.5%	1,118	0.4%
Waikato	74,398	74,405	74,000	7	0.0%	-405	-0.5%
Bay of Plenty	51,504	51,252	50,736	-252	-0.5%	-516	-1.0%
Gisborne	9,947	9,870	9,723	-77	-0.8%	-147	-1.5%
Hawkes Bay	30,601	30,726	30,326	125	0.4%	-400	-1.3%
Taranaki	20,614	20,300	20,007	-314	-1.5%	-293	-1.4%
Manawatu-Wanganui	43,072	42,495	42,163	-577	-1.3%	-332	-0.8%
Wellington	79,694	79,391	79,684	-303	-0.4%	293	0.4%
West Coast	5,425	5,250	5,166	-175	-3.2%	-84	-1.6%
Canterbury	89,289	89,618	89,767	329	0.4%	149	0.2%
Otago	31,060	30,877	30,528	-183	-0.6%	-349	-1.1%
Southland	17,394	17,017	16,857	-377	-2.2%	-160	-0.9%
Tasman	7,435	7,468	7,430	33	0.4%	-38	-0.5%
Nelson	8,840	8,690	8,610	-150	-1.7%	-80	-0.9%
Marlborough	6,725	6,684	6,706	-41	-0.6%	22	0.3%
Chatham Is. County	84	74	79	-10	-11.9%	5	6.8%
Correspondence School	7,996	6,632	5,873	-1,364	-17.1%	-759	-11.4%
Not Applicable*	476	941	949	465	97.7%	8	0.9%
Total	764,654	762,790	760,761	-1,864	-0.2%	-2,029	-0.3%

*Not Applicable refers to Westmount School that has multiple campus locations

Rolls by type of school

Primary school rolls, including Intermediates (441,770 students at July 2006), experienced a decrease of 0.6 per cent (2,676 students).

Composite school rolls excluding the Correspondence school (41,027 students) decreased by 0.5 per cent (189 students).

Secondary school rolls (269,296 students) increased by 0.6 per cent (1,584 students).

The Correspondence School roll (5,873 students) decreased by 11.4 per cent (759 students).

Special school rolls (2,795 students) increased by 0.4 per cent (11 students).

Rolls by MOE year level

In July 2006 there were 482,769 students in Years 1-8. Since 2005, this decreased by 2,355 or 0.5 per cent. The number of students in Year 1 (58,040) has decreased by 2.1 per cent, (1,265) since July 2005, compared with an increase of 3.3 per cent in the previous year.

The number of foreign fee-paying students in Years 1-8 (2,455) decreased by 409 students (14.3 per cent) contributing to the decrease in the Y1-Y8 roll.

The Year 9 – 15 rolls increased by 326 students (0.1 per cent) to 277,992 in July 2006. This small increase is accounted for by regular students as the number of foreign fee-paying students in Years 9-15 (7,190) decreased by 1,245 (14.8 per cent).

In 2006, there were 387,916 male (51 per cent) and 372,845 female (49 per cent) students. At the primary levels (Years 1-8), the male proportion was slightly higher than the female proportion (being 51.5 per cent and 48.5 per cent respectively). At secondary levels (Years 9-15), there is a narrower gap, with the male proportion being 50.1 per cent and the female proportion being 49.9 per cent. Male enrolments are slightly higher than females at the lower secondary levels (Years 9-11), but from Years 12-15, female enrolments are higher than males. For Year 13 and 15 enrolments, female enrolments are six percentage points higher than males.

Table 2: Percentage of Enrolments by Gender Breakdown for each MOE Year Level

MoE Year Level	% Male	% Female	Total
Year 1	51.2%	48.8%	100.0%
Year 2	51.3%	48.7%	100.0%
Year 3	51.6%	48.4%	100.0%
Year 4	51.4%	48.6%	100.0%
Year 5	51.2%	48.8%	100.0%
Year 6	51.8%	48.2%	100.0%
Year 7	51.8%	48.2%	100.0%
Year 8	51.9%	48.1%	100.0%
Year 1-8 subtotal	51.5%	48.5%	100.0%
Year 9	51.6%	48.4%	100.0%
Year 10	51.5%	48.5%	100.0%
Year 11	50.5%	49.5%	100.0%
Year 12	48.2%	51.8%	100.0%
Year 13	47.0%	53.0%	100.0%
Year 14	48.1%	51.9%	100.0%
Year 15	47.0%	53.0%	100.0%
Year 9 - 15 subtotal	50.1%	49.9%	100.0%
Total	51.0%	49.0%	100.0%

Apparent retention

Retention rates are calculated by taking the number of 14 year olds as a base population and calculating how many of these students are still attending school when they are 15, 16 17 year olds etc. Because this calculation takes no account of migration it is called an ‘apparent’ retention rate and should be treated with caution.

Retention by age and ethnicity

Overall these apparent retention rates suggest that the proportion of students staying on for a fourth year in secondary school has largely remained stable. This can be seen by the levelling off of the percentage of students aged 17 in the table below: 61 per cent in 2004, and 60 per cent in both 2005 and 2006.

Māori retention rates remain much lower than the other ethnic groups. Retention rates for Māori 16 year-olds dropped by two percentage points from 63 per cent in 2005 to 61 per cent in 2006. 

Table 3: Apparent Retention Rates* by Age and Ethnicity and Gender

		2004			2005			2006
		Age 16	Age 17	Age 18	Age 16	Age 17	Age 18	Age 16	Age 17	Age 18
European/Pākehā	Male	79%	56%	10%	78%	55%	11%	79%	56%	11%
	Female	86%	65%	11%	86%	65%	12%	86%	67%	11%
	Total	82%	60%	11%	82%	60%	11%	83%	61%	11%
Māori	Male	60%	36%	9%	59%	36%	8%	58%	35%	8%
	Female	68%	43%	9%	66%	43%	8%	64%	42%	7%
	Total	64%	40%	9%	63%	39%	8%	61%	39%	8%
Pasifika	Male	79%	62%	22%	78%	62%	21%	80%	62%	19%
	Female	86%	70%	19%	90%	70%	19%	88%	73%	19%
	Total	82%	66%	21%	84%	66%	20%	84%	67%	19%
All**	Male	78%	56%	13%	77%	56%	13%	77%	56%	13%
	Female	85%	65%	14%	84%	65%	14%	84%	65%	13%
	Total	81%	61%	14%	80%	60%	13%	80%	60%	13%

Notes: * No adjustment has been made to account for migration.

** Excludes NZAID and foreign fee-paying students

Retention by age and gender

Within each gender, retention rates have remained relatively stable. However, female retention rates appear substantially higher than males at ages 16 and 17. For example in 2006, 84 per cent of females aged 16 remained at school, while only 77 per cent of males remained at school. This pattern also follows that of enrolments at the higher MoE year levels, where the proportion of females enrolled in schools is higher than males.

Retention by age, ethnicity and gender

Again, retention remains relatively stable across 2004 to 2006 when broken down by age, ethnicity and gender. The trend continues to show that female retention rates are substantially higher than that of males, as seen across ethnicity groups. The retention rates for 16-year-old Maori students, was 64 per cent for female compared to 58 per cent for their male counterparts. The Māori male rate is the lowest of all ethnic groups.

Foreign fee-paying students

At July 2006, there were 9,645 foreign fee-paying students in New Zealand schools. The number of foreign fee-paying students has decreased each year since 2003. Between 2005 and 2006, the number of foreign fee-paying students decreased by approximately 14.6 per cent (1,654 students).

Foreign fee-paying students now comprise 1.3 per cent of the New Zealand school population, compared with 1.9 per cent and 1.5 per cent in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

At July 2006 there were 2,455 foreign fee-paying students in Years 1-8. This was a 14.3 per cent (409) decrease since July 2005. At July 2006 there were 7,190 foreign fee-paying students in Years 9-15, which was a 14.8 per cent (1,245) decrease since July 2005.

About half (49.7 per cent) of foreign fee-paying students were attending schools in the Auckland region in July 2006. There were 18.2 per cent in Canterbury , 7.0 per cent in Waikato and 6.3 per cent in Wellington .

88.9 per cent of foreign fee-paying students come from Asia . By far the largest group comes from South Korea with 46.7 per cent of total foreign fee-paying students, followed by Japan with 14.3 per cent and China with 12.0 per cent.

The number of foreign fee-paying students enrolling from China showed a significant decrease of 34.3 per cent between July 2005 and July 2006. Among the other high contributors, South Korea and Japan have decreased in the last year by 11.4 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively.

Table 4: Foreign Fee-Paying (FFP) Students in Top Ten Countries at 1 July 2004-2006

	2004			2005			2006
	Country	Number of FFP	% of total	Country	Number of FFP	% of total	Country	Number of FFP	% of total
1	South Korea	6,519	45.0%	South Korea	5,080	45.0%	South Korea	4,503	46.7%
2	China	3,313	22.9%	China	1,756	15.5%	Japan	1,384	14.3%
3	Japan	1,530	10.6%	Japan	1,594	14.1%	China	1,153	12.0%
4	Thailand	911	6.3%	Thailand	770	6.8%	Thailand	614	6.4%
5	Hong Kong	357	2.5%	Germany	416	3.7%	Germany	446	4.6%
6	Taiwan	330	2.3%	Taiwan	333	2.9%	Taiwan	273	2.8%
7	Germany	308	2.1%	Hong Kong	288	2.5%	Hong Kong	255	2.6%
8	Vietnam	192	1.3%	Vietnam	165	1.5%	Vietnam	138	1.4%
9	Brazil	162	1.1%	Malaysia	119	1.1%	Brazil	99	1.0%
10	Malaysia	130	0.9%	Brazil	116	1.0%	Fiji	95	1.0%

Foreign fee-paying students from Europe , which make up 6.4 per cent of overall enrolments by foreign fee-paying students, increased by 9.4 per cent in 2006. Student enrolments from the Pacific Region increased after having fallen in 2005. They now make up 2.2 per cent (216) of foreign fee-paying enrolments.

While Asian countries dominate foreign fee-paying enrolments, Brazil and Germany continue to appear in the top ten countries. Despite the trend of declining foreign fee-paying enrolments, Germany has had increasing numbers of foreign fee-paying students, from 308 in 2004 to 446 in 2006. Enrolments from Germany now make up 4.6 per cent of foreign fee-paying enrolments.

Domestic student rolls by ethnicity

There were 751,044 domestic students as at 1 July 2006 which was a decrease of 377 since 1 July 2005 . The domestic student count excludes foreign fee-paying and NZAID students.

There are relatively more students of Pasifika and Asian ethnicity than last year and there has been little change in the proportion of Māori students. The ethnic breakdown of the total number of domestic students in July 2006 was as follows:

• NZ European/Pākehā and Other European students (443,361) make up 59.0 per cent of total domestic students (down from 59.6 per cent);
• Māori students (162,685) make up 21.6 per cent (No change since 2005);
• Pasifika students (68,059) make up 9.1 per cent (up slightly from 8.8 per cent);
• Asian students (61,857) make up 8.2 per cent (up slightly from 8.0 per cent); and
• Students from other ethnic groups (15,382) make up 2.0 per cent (up slightly from 1.9 per cent).

The number of domestic Asian students in New Zealand schools at July 2006 has increased by 1,499 since July 2005. This was a 2.5 per cent increase since 2005, which compares to a 2.8 per cent increase between 2004 and 2005, and a 4.8 per cent increase between 2003 and 2004.

Māori-medium education

Māori-medium education programmes involve students being taught either all or some curriculum subjects in the Māori language, either in immersion or bilingual programmes.

At 1 July 2006 , there were 29,341 students involved in Māori-medium education. This was a 1.5 per cent increase since July 2005, when 28,914 students were involved in Māori-medium education.

Table 5: Students involved in Māori-medium education at 1 July 2006

	All Students			Māori Students
% of Curriculum Instruction Undertaken in Māori	Number	% of Total School Population	% Change since 2005	Number	% of Māori School Population	% Change since 2005
Level 1: 81-100%	12,235	1.6%	-4.1%	12,125	7.5%	-4.0%
Level 2: 51-80%	5,187	0.7%	1.3%	5,018	3.1%	0.5%
Level 3: 31-50%	5,450	0.7%	-5.4%	4,820	3.0%	-7.1%
Level 4(a): up to 30%	6,469	0.9%	22.5%	4,377	2.7%	16.3%
Total	29,341	3.9%	1.5%	26,340	16.2%	-0.9%

Note: Students are counted at their highest level of Māori-medium learning.

Kura Kaupapa Māori

Kura Kaupapa Māori are state schools in which Māori language, culture and values predominate and in which the principal language of instruction is Māori.

In the year to 1 July 2006 , the total number of students attending Kura Kaupapa Māori decreased by 32 to 6,144. There were 6,125 Māori attending Kura Kaupapa Māori, which represents 3.8 per cent of all Māori students. This percentage is unchanged from 2005. Between July 2005 and July 2006, the number of Kura Kaupapa Māori increased by three to 66.

Te Reo Māori as a separate subject

In addition to Māori-medium education, where Māori is the medium of instruction for some or all of the time, there are also 19,875 students learning Te Reo Māori as a separate subject for three or more hours per week. This compares to 20,822 students learning in 2005 (a 4.5 per cent decrease). Of these, 13,512 are Māori, which represents 8.3 per cent of all Māori students. (This compares to 13,759 Maori students learning in 2005, which is a 1.8 per cent decrease.)

Pasifika-medium education

A total of 32 schools offer Pasifika-medium education, where a Pasifika language is the medium of instruction for more than three hours per week. Of these, 25 were primary, six were secondary schools and one was a composite school.

In July 2006 a total of 2,513 students were involved in Pasifika-medium education. This was a substantial 28.7 per cent increase since July 2005, when 1,952 students were involved.

Language learning at primary level

There has been an increase in the number of Year 1-8 students learning one or more languages other than English or Te Reo Māori for 30 hours or more per year. Total numbers reported in 2006 were 4,461 in Years 1-6, and 11,525 in Years 7-8. This reflects an overall 17.8 per cent increase across these year levels. However, some students may be learning more than one language.

Very small numbers are learning Pasifika languages (221) (these students are not involved in a Pasifika-medium programme). However, this still reflects an increase in numbers since 2005.

The numbers of students learning European languages has increased by 17.1 per cent, from 10,417 in 2005 to 12,195 in 2006.

The numbers of students learning Asian languages has increased by 18.4 per cent, from 2,460 in 2005 to 2,914 students in 2006.

Secondary subjects

From 2003 information was collected on the numbers of students studying subjects for more than 20 hours per year, at any time during the whole academic year, whereas in previous years data collected represented a snapshot as at 1 July. Furthermore, from 2003, subjects were also defined by Learning Zone, which is the academic level at which the subject is being studied, rather than by the MoE Year Level of the student.

Gender imbalances in curriculum choices continue. As in 2005, girls predominate in most languages, visual and performing arts and most social science subjects. Boys predominate in most maths, technology, science and health and physical education subjects. The largest differences were in technology and visual and performing art subjects. In technology subjects, 55 per cent of the students were males. In visual and performing art subjects, female students made up 55.6 per cent of total enrolments.

Early childhood education attendance by Year 1 students

There were 58,040 Year 1 students in July 2006. For those where attendance history could be established, 94.5 per cent of Year 1 children in 2006 had regularly attended early childhood education. This is a slight increase from the 94.3 per cent in 2005.

A total of 3,076 Year 1 students attended Kohanga Reo. Of these, 2,899 students were Māori. This represents 20.7 per cent of all Māori Year 1 students.

Schools were unable to establish whether 2,553 of these children had regularly attended some form of early childhood education immediately prior to starting school.

Private school rolls

The proportion of the New Zealand school population attending private schools at 1 July 2006 was 3.9 per cent (29,895 students). This is a slightly higher proportion than last year, being 3.8 per cent (29,358 students). Growth in private school rolls remains low. In July 2006, there was a 1.8 per cent increase, and in July 2005 and 2004 there was a 0.7 per cent and 1.0 per cent increase respectively.

Foreign fee-paying students account for 4.3 per cent of the rolls in private schools in 2006, compared with 4.8 per cent in 2005 and 7.3 per cent in 2004.

Number of schools

At 1 July 2006 the number of schools in New Zealand was 2,573. This is seven fewer than in 2005. In addition there were also eight Kura Teina and 17 Teen Parent Units.

Despite a decrease in the school population and declining school numbers, there are still new schools opening. Between 1 July 2005 and 1 July 2006 six new schools were opened. Four were state schools, one was integrated and one was private.

A total of 16 schools closed between 1 July 2005 and 1 July 2006 . Twelve were state schools, and four were private schools. Of these, one was a Secondary (Y9-15) and the rest were all Full Primary schools.

Table 7: Total Number of Schools by School Type at 1 July: 2001 - 2006

Type of School	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	Difference 2005-06	Difference 2001-06
Contributing	843	834	829	816	795	798	3	-45
Full Primary	1,232	1,222	1,216	1,179	1,138	1,128	-10	-104
Intermediate	134	132	132	127	123	123	0	-11
Primary Subtotal	2,209	2,188	2,177	2,122	2,056	2,049	-7	-160
Composite	118	125	129	133	135	136	1	18
Restricted Composite	7	6	6	6	5	5	0	-2
Correspondence	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	0
Composite Subtotal	126	132	136	140	141	142	1	16
Year 7-15	91	90	92	95	99	102	3	11
Year 9-15	245	242	241	243	236	233	-3	-12
Secondary Subtotal	336	332	333	338	335	335	0	-1
Special	47	47	47	47	48	47	-1	0
Total	2,718	2,699	2,693	2,647	2,580	2,573	-7	-145

Note: Includes Health Camps and Hospital schools. Excludes Kura Teina and Teen Parent Units.

Note: Between 1 July 2005 and 1 July 2006 , the “School Type” of some schools changed. Two Secondary (Yr 9-15) schools changed their type to Secondary (Yr 7-15), one Special school changed to Full Primary, three Full Primary schools changed to a Contributing school, and one Contributing school became a Full Primary school. In addition, three Kura Teina changed their type to Full Primary. Kura Teina are not counted as schools so these were excluded from the count at July 2005 but are included in the count as at July 2006. Therefore the change in the number of schools by type between July 2005 and July 2006 is not indicative that the differences relate to the number of schools opened and closed during that period.

Schools by region

The Manawatu-Wanganui region experienced the greatest decrease in the number of schools, with four fewer schools than in July 2005. Five Full Primary schools were closed and one was opened.

Taranaki had two Full Primary schools close between 1 July 2005 and 1 July 2006 . Northland, Waikato , Hawkes Bay , Canterbury , Marlborough and Nelson regions each had one Full Primary school close.

In the Otago region one Full Primary school opened between July 2005 and July 2006.

The Auckland region experienced the most changes, with two Full Primary schools and one Secondary (Yr 9-15) school closing. There were also one Composite school, one Contributing school, one Full Primary school and one Secondary (Yr 7-15) school opening.

Table 8: Total Number of Schools** at 1 July by Region: 2005 - 2006

Region	2005	2006	Number of new schools	Number. of closed schools	Difference 2005-06
Northland	146	147	2*	1	1
Auckland	528	529	4	3	1
Bay of Plenty	156	156	-	-	0
Waikato	311	310	-	1	-1
Gisborne	55	56	1*	-	1
Hawkes Bay	132	131	-	1	-1
Taranaki	99	97	-	2	-2
Manawatu-Wanganui	213	209	1	5	-4
Wellington	253	253	-	-	0
Tasman	36	36	-	-	0
Nelson	24	23	-	1	-1
Marlborough	32	31	-	1	-1
Canterbury	308	307	-	1	-1
West Coast	38	38	-	-	0
Otago	155	156	1	-	1
Southland	89	89	-	-	0
Chatham Islands County	3	3	-	-	0
Correspondence School	1	1	-	-	0
Not Applicable+	1	1	-	-	0
Total	2,580	2,573	9	-16	-7

Notes:

* Three Kura Teina have changed their type to Full Primary. Kura Teina are not counted as schools so these were excluded from the count at July 2005 but are included in the July 2006 count.

** Includes Health Camps and Hospital schools. Excludes Kura Teina and Teen Parent Units.

+ Not Applicable refers to Westmount School that has multiple campus locations

Related Pages on Education Counts

Other reports can be found on the School Roll Summary Reports publication index page.

The July School Roll Return data collection page provides links to data, publications and indicators based on that collection.