School Roll Summary Report: March 2009

Number of Schools

1. At 1 March 2009 the number of state, state-integrated and private schools in New Zealand was 2,560. This is six fewer than in March 2008.
2. Between 1 March 2008 and 1 March 2009 a total of twelve schools closed. Five were state schools and seven were private schools. Of these, six were full primary, two contributing, two composite and two secondary (Years 7-15) schools. Two of these schools merged to form a new composite school.
3. Despite a declining number of schools, there are still new schools opening. Between 1 March 2008 and 1 March 2009, seven new schools opened. Five were Private Schools, one State School and one State School Teen Parent Unit opened last year.
4. Between 1 March 2008 and 1 March 2009, the School Type of twelve schools changed. One composite school changed to Secondary (Year 7-15). The primary department of this school has opened as a new full primary school. Eight full primary (Year 1-8) changed to be composite (Year 1-15). Two contributing schools (Year 1-6) changed to full primary and one full primary changed to contributing.

Schools by Region

1. Of the seven new schools opened, four were in the Auckland region, one was in Wellington and two were in Canterbury.
2. Of the twelve schools that closed, four were in the Wellington, two in Auckland, Otago and Southland while the Tasman and Canterbury regions each had one school closure.

School Rolls (FTE Students)

5. There were 745,148 full-time equivalent (FTE) students at 1 March 2009.  This is a decrease of 0.07%  (533 FTE students) from March 1 2008.
6. For March 2009 we collected current year level (the year level where a student is currently learning) for primary and intermediate students where, in the past, the funding year level (the number of years a student had been in school) was used. As a result, a year 1 – 6 school now counts funding year level 7 students as Year 6 students. This change occurred as the Ministry moved from a paper based collection to a lower compliance cost electronic collection sourced through ENROL.

Rolls by Type of School

1. Primary & Intermediate school rolls decreased by 0.7% from 419,278 in March 2008 to 416,499 in March 2009 (2,779 FTE students).
2. Secondary school rolls increased by 0.8% from 276,841 in March 2008 to 279,086 in March 2009 (2,245 FTE students).
3. Composite school rolls increased by 0.8% from 42,408 in March 2008 to 42,749 in March 2009 (341FTE students).
4. Special school rolls increased by 2.3% from 2,718 in March 2008 to 2,782 in March 2009 (64 FTE students).
5. The Correspondence School roll increased by 16.0% from 3,370 in March 2008 to 4,032 in March 2009 (662 FTE students).

Rolls by Sector

1. In the primary sector (Years 1 to 8) school rolls decreased by 0.5% from 459,715 in March 2008 to 457,541 in March 2009 (2,174 FTE students).
2. In the secondary sector (Years 9 to 15) school rolls increased by 0.9% from 284,900 in March 2008 to 287,607 in March 2009 (2,707 FTE students).
3. The largest increase was in Year 6 students and the largest decrease was in Year 7 students. The increase/decrease can be explained by a change in our collection process for primary and intermediate schools.

Rolls by Region and Territorial Authority

1. There were no regions with large increases between March 2008 and March 2009.
2. Otorohanga, Selwyn and Kaikoura districts have shown the largest percentage increases out of the 73 Territorial Authorities between March 2008 and March 2009. With Otorohanga and Selwyn district rolls increasing by 3.6% and Kaikoura district rolls increasing by 2.3%.

Figure 2: Logarithm of the Total Number of Students by Authority and Funding Year Level at 1 March 2009

Foreign Fee-Paying Students (Head Count)

7. Foreign fee-paying and exchange students, previously collected in the March Roll Returns as a snap shot at 1 March, are now collected over time in three trimester periods.
   • Trimester 1: 27 January – 30 April      (Collected in March Roll Return)
   • Trimester 2: 1 May – 31 August          (Collected in July Roll Return)
   • Trimester 3: 1 September – 18 December
8. General analysis considers the first trimester as a whole. An estimate of the 1 March 2009 snapshot has been calculated from the first trimester of data, based on ENROL data, to allow trend analysis.
9. Foreign fee-paying student numbers as at 1 March 2009, decreased by 2.4% since March 2008 from 10,013to 9,775students. Foreign fee-paying students represent 1.3% of the total school population.

Foreign Fee-Paying Students by Region

1. The region with the largest share of all foreign fee-paying students is Auckland with 48.3% of all foreign fee-paying students (11,683 students).
2. The region with the second largest share of all foreign fee-paying students continues to be Canterbury with 17.4% of all foreign fee-paying students (2,038 students). 

Foreign Fee-Paying Students by Region of Origin

1. The majority of foreign fee-paying students originate from the Asian region (81.3%). Of all Asian fee-paying students, 49.2% come from South Korea, 13.9% come from Japan and 17.7% come from China.
2. The number of foreign fee-paying students enrolling from China (1,406 students) showed a slight increase of 3.7% between March 2008 and 2009. However enrolments from South Korea (3,965 students) represented a decrease of 8.1% between March 2008 and 2009.

Māori Medium Education (Headcount)

Schools

1. Māori Medium immersion schools are schools where all students are recorded at Māori Medium Education Level 1 (81-100% of class time in Māori). Enrolments at Māori immersion schools increased by 7.6% (480 students). 
2. Schools where all students are at Levels 1-4a (12% of class time and above) are called bilingual schools.  Enrolments at bilingual schools grew by 12.3% (1,076 students) between March 2007 and March 2008.
3. There were 69 Kura Kaupapa Māori schools and four Kura Teina schools.

Students

1. The total number of students involved in Māori Medium Education decreased between March 2008 and March 2009 by 2.2% (610 students) to 27,648.
2. The number of Māori involved in Māori Medium Education has decreased between March 2008 to March 2009 by 4.1% (1,005 students) to 24,293.
3. At the primary level (Years 1-8), enrolments have decreased by 3.7% (827 students), whereas at the secondary level (Years 9-15), enrolments have increased by 3.9% (217 students).

Downloads

International Students Snapshot 2009 (File size: 42.5 KB)

International Students for the Trimester Period 27 Jan - 30 April 2009 (File size: 41 KB)

Māori Medium Education March 2009 (File size: 51.5 KB)

School Numbers March 2009 (File size: 52.5 KB)

Student Numbers March 2009 (File size: 56.0 KB)

Related Pages on Education Counts

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

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