National Certificate of Educational Achievement
Information about New Zealand's national schooling qualifications and access to relevant research and statistics on NCEA.
NCEA is the national secondary school qualification for students in years 11 to 13. NCEA stands for National Certificate of Educational Achievement. NCEA can be gained in three levels; students usually work towards NCEA Level 1 in Year 11, Level 2 in Year 12, and Level 3 in Year 13. However, NCEA is very flexible and students may study at a mix of levels during a year.
Understanding NCEA provides a more detailed explanation of NCEA.
Key Senior Schooling Achievement Statistics
School Leaver Indicators
NCEA results are used to provide a key assessment of how the education system is performing. The Ministry of Education collects information on all secondary school students who finished their schooling, including their highest attainment at school (see the School Leavers Data Collection page for information on school leaver data). This information is used to produce school leaver indicators:
- School leavers with little or no attainment (and associated data tables)
- School leavers with NCEA Level 1 or above (and associated data tables)
- School leavers with NCEA Level 2 or above (and associated data tables)
- School leavers with a university entrance standard (and associated data tables)
NZQA statistics
NZQA provides an abundance of detailed NQF data. Information provided includes qualification information by a range of demographic variables, and information on individual standards.
International Comparisons
Because different countries have different qualification systems it is not usual to compare qualification performance internationally. However, a range of international surveys are undertaken to allow the more accurate comparisons of performance.
PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an international study that asseses how well 15 year-old students are prepared to meet the challenges of today. PISA information can be accessed via:
- the indicator Mathematics Literacy Achievement: senior secondary schooling
- the indicator Science Literacy achievement: senior schooling
- the indicator Reading literacy achievement: senior schooling
- the PISA publication home page
- the PISA Data Collection page
Publications
NCEA data is used in a number of analytical publications and can be found in.
Secondary Qualifications Statistics. The latest tables of schooling qualification statistics from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority’s national qualification framework.
Author: New Zealand Qualifications Authority
Date Published: Various
NCEA Fact Sheets. This is the index page for a series of publications based on NCEA results.
Author: Various
Date Published: Various
New Zealand Schools: Ngā Kura o Aotearoa. This is the home page for the New Zealand Schools publication series. Also known as the Schools Sector Report, this is the annual report of the Minister of Education on the compulsory schools sector in New Zealand. The reports provide information on how well the schools sector is performing.
Author: Data Management and Analysis Division, Ministry of Education
Date Published: September 2007
State of Education in New Zealand. This is the home page for the annual State of Education in New Zealand publication series. This report presents a picture of New Zealand’s education system with indicators on participation, achievement, effective teaching, labour market outcomes and resourcing across the early childhood, schooling and tertiary sectors.
Author: Strategy and System Performance, Ministry of Education
Date Published: Annually
New Zealand Government sites of interest
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority quality-assures secondary and tertiary qualifications and education providers, evaluates overseas qualifications and administers the New Zealand Register of Quality Assured Qualifications and the National Qualifications Framework, including the NCEA.
The Ministry of Education is responsible for the development of the achievement standards and the scholarship standards. The Ministry also develops and maintains the assessment resources for the internally assessed standards and provides the professional development in preparation for the implementation of NCEA. Go to the Ministry of Education NCEA pages for more NCEA information.
Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI), the Ministry of Education's Online Learning Centre, is a bilingual portal which provides quality assured educational material for New Zealand teachers, school managers, and the wider education community. A section of this site, NCEA on TKI, holds assessment resources and support material developed for use with achievement standard.
Studyit is your one stop website for achieving in NCEA maths, science, and English. Find what you need to know, contact subject teachers, and get encouragement from other students.
The Team-Up site provides information and resources for parents, caregivers and families/whānau to help them get involved in and supporting their child’s education – from the early years to when they leave school and beyond. Follow this link to useful NCEA information on Team-Up NCEA pages.