Participation and Attainment of Māori students in National Certificate of Educational Achievement

Description

Note that students’ achievement can be assessed in many ways and statistics presented here may differ from other sources (see The Statistics section at the end for more information).
 
NB: International fee-paying students are excluded; prior to 2009, NZAID scholarship students are excluded, from 2009 onwards, they are included in the domestic count. Qualifications gained by students who have not paid their NZQA exam fees are included.

Key Findings - 2009

• Non-Māori students have a higher attainment rate in NCEA qualifications, however the rate of increase in attainment over time, is higher for Māori students than that for non-Māori students.
• In year 12, 67 percent of Māori students and 55 percent of year 13 Māori students gained an NCEA qualification (either NCEA level 1, 2 or 3) in 2009.
• While the proportion of most year 12 and 13 students to gain NCEA qualifications seems to have reached a plateau, achievement by Māori males is still improving.

Qualifications gained by Year 11 students

In 2009, 48 percent of year 11 Māori students gained an NCEA qualification at typical level or above.  This compares to 69 percent of non-Māori (see Figure 1). Whilst Maori students still perform at a significantly lower level than their non-Maori peers, their performance is improving at a relatively faster rate.

Male students were slightly less likely to gain a qualification when compared to female students with male Māori students continuing to be the least likely group to gain a qualification (45 percent gained an NCEA qualification in 2009, see Figure 1.)

Qualifications gained by Year 11 students

In 2009, 48 percent of year 11 Māori students gained an NCEA qualification at typical level or above.¹ This compares to 69 percent of non-Māori (see Figure 1). Whilst Maori students still perform at a significantly lower level than their non-Maori peers, their performance is improving at a relatively faster rate.

Male students were slightly less likely to gain a qualification when compared to female students with male Māori students continuing to be the least likely group to gain a qualification (45 percent gained an NCEA qualification in 2009, see Figure 1.)

Qualifications gained by Year 12 students

The proportion of year 12 students who gained an NCEA qualification at level 2 or above in 2009 has remained essentially the same as 2008 for all groups. In 2009, 53 percent of Māori and 70 percent of non-Māori achieved NCEA level 2 and above in 2009 (Figure 2). A further 14 percent of year 12 Māori achieved NCEA level 1.

Male Māori students have shown an improvement in the proportion gaining level 2 and above (50 percent in 2009 compared to 47 percent in 2008). This has increased by 17 percentage points since 2004, and is the fastest rate of improvement of all groups of students.

As with year 11 students, year 12 female students were consistently more likely to attain NCEA level 2 qualifications (56 percent for Māori female students and 75 percent for non-Māori females compared to 50 percent for Māori male students and 64 percent for non-Māori males).

Qualifications gained by Year 13 students

In 2009, 35 percent of year 13 Māori students gained a level 3 qualification or above (the same as in 2008) (see Figure 3) and 20 percent gained NCEA level 1 or 2 as their highest qualification. This compares to 57 percent of non-Māori students who achieved NCEA level 3 or above. A further 10 of non-Māori students percent gained level 1 or 2.

Achievement in NCEA level 3 or above by Māori male students has increased slightly in the last year (29 percent in 2009 and 27 percent in 2008).

Literacy and Numeracy

As seen in Figure 4, 66 percent of Māori students achieved both the literacy and numeracy requirements for NCEA Level 1 by the end of Year 11. This compares to 79 percent of non-Māori students. This represents an increase of 17 percentage points for Māori and 10 percentage points for non-Māori since 2004.

Female students in both groups were more likely to meet both the requirements than males. Of the two requirements, more students met the numeracy requirement than the literacy requirement by the end of Year 11.

University Entrance (UE)

In 2009, 29 percent of year 13 Māori students and 54 percent of year 13 non-Māori students met the requirements for University Entrance (UE). This is slightly down on the results from 2008 (see Figure 5). UE attainment by Māori students has increased 6 percentage points since 2004 (from 23 percent).

Females of both ethnic groupings were more likely to meet UE requirements in 2009, with non-Māori females being almost twice as likely as their Māori peers to meet requirements for UE (60 percent compared to 35 percent).

The Statistics

In this factsheet, NCEA refers to all national certificates for senior secondary students (for example, National Certificate of Educational Achievement and other certificates on the National Qualifications Framework), but excludes international qualifications (for example, Cambridge International Examinations).

The calculation basis for the statistics in this fact sheet differs from that used previously. Here, all proportions are calculated with a denominator of student roll. However, previously a denominator of candidates (students who have gained at least one credit) was used. To enable student roll to be a reasonable denominator, International-fee paying students are excluded from ethnic group statistics since the specific ethnicity of International-fee paying students is not known. From 2009 onwards, NZAID students are included with domestic students.

Attainment of all national certificates on the National Qualifications Framework by senior secondary students is reported here, previously only the National Certificate of Educational Achievement was focused on.  By far the majority of senior secondary students gain the National Certificate of Educational Achievement. Additionally from 2005, qualifications gained by students who have not paid their NZQA exam fees are included (these students, however, are not able to be specified at all for 2004). They were specifically excluded from our previous analyses prior to 2005. At the national level, this has minimal effect on trend results.  

Further information on Māori student achievement is available on the Education Counts website:
http://www.educationcounts.edcentre.govt.nz/publications/schooling

Footnotes