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School Qualifications: NCEA level 2

A formal school qualification is a measure of the extent to which young adults have completed a basic prerequisite for higher education and training, and many entry-level jobs.

School leavers are identified from the Ministry of Education's ENROL system, while highest school qualification is obtained from schools and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. Data presented here is for school leavers with NCEA Level 1 and above, level 2 and above and level 3 and above (including a UE Award).

Identical information is available for other territorial authorities in this region by using the drop down menu above. For territorial authorities in other regions first choose the appropriate region from the drop down menu above. Alternatively a large amount of school leaver data is available from our statistical pages. See School Leavers.

School leavers with at least NCEA level 2 or equivalent by gender and ethnic group (2023-2025)
Group Below NCEA level 2 NCEA level 2 or above Percentage with NCEA level 2 or above
2023 2024 2025 2023 2024 2025 2023 2024 2025
Female 22 19 17 194 213 205 89.8 91.8 92.3
Male 24 36 27 174 204 235 87.9 85.0 89.7
Māori 10 8 5 35 34 45 77.8 81.0 90.0
Pacific 1 7 x 7 8 x 87.5 53.3 x
Asian 1 5 8 25 38 45 96.2 88.4 84.9
MELAA 0 11 5 9 7 9 100.0 38.9 64.3
Other 0 3 x 8 7 x 100.0 70.0 x
European/Pākehā 40 35 30 315 365 371 88.7 91.3 92.5
Territorial Total 46 55 44 368 417 440 88.9 88.3 90.9
New Zealand Total 15,454 15,314 15,724 48,477 50,956 55,062 75.8 76.9 77.8

Notes:

  1. ‘x’ = data has been suppressed where there are between 0 and 5 students in the denominator for a specific group, for example Asian students. Where one gender has been suppressed the corresponding gender has also been suppressed. 'na' = not applicable.
  2. Ethnicity is multiple response, that is, students who affiliated in more than one ethnic group have been counted in each ethnic group. Students are only counted once in the total, therefore, the ethnic groups may not sum to the total.
  3. International fee-paying students and adult students (age 19+) are excluded.

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