Pasifika Education Plan: Monitoring Report 2013 Publications
Publication Details
The Pasifika Education Plan Monitoring Report provides an update on how our Pasifika learners are achieving against this goal.
Author(s): Ministry of Education.
Date Published: July 2015
Summary
The Pasifika Education Plan 2013-2017 (the PEP) provides a strategic direction for improving education outcomes for Pasifika peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This monitoring report provides a national and regional picture of how Pasifika learners are progressing as the PEP is implemented. It gives us an idea of what level of progress is needed to achieve the PEP's goals and targets by 2017. Actions to improve outcomes in these identified areas are included in the PEP. The success of these actions will be analysed in this and subsequent monitoring reports to assess what we are doing to create an environment for Pasifika educational success.
Compass for Pasifika success:
The compass for Pasifika success is a fundamental part of the PEP. It is a visual representation that helps to ensure Pasifika learners and their parents, families and communities are at the heart of efforts to increase Pasifika participation, engagement and achievement in learning. It is vital that all parts of the education system work together to achieve the goals and targets of the PEP.
Pasifika people have multiple world views and diverse cultural identities. They are able to operate and negotiate successfully through spiritual, social, political, cultural and economic worlds. Success in education requires harnessing Pasifika diversity within an enabling education system that works for young people, their families and communities. This requires the education system, leadership and curricula to start with the Pasifika learner and their family at the centre, drawing on the strength of their cultures, identities and languages. The more we understand the learner, the better we can respond to their needs, aspirations and achievement goals.
Pasifika demographics1
Pasifika people make up approximately 7.4% of the total population, with 295,941 people living in New Zealand in 2013. The growth of the Pasifika population continues to be a significant attribute to society in New Zealand. Pasifika was the fourth largest ethnic group in 2013, with 35.7% of their population under the age of 15 years. The success of the PEP is vital in contributing to the education of this fast growing group of young New Zealanders.
Population in New Zealand
In the 2013 census, the Pasifika population was 295,941, an increase of 11% since 2006 compared to an increase of 6% for Māori and an increase of 14% for the European population. The Pasifika population in New Zealand includes people of Pasifika descent born in New Zealand and people born in the Pacific Islands. They include people of Samoan, Cook Island Māori, Tongan, Niuean, Fijian, and Tokelauan ethnicity, as well as some people from smaller island communities. Samoan is the largest Pasifika ethnicity and Tongan is the fastest growing ethnicity.
Whilst the Pasifika population is growing, the proportion of Pasifika people living in New Zealand and born in the Pacific Islands is reducing (from 35% in 2006 to 30% in 2013), this trend is expected to continue.
Two-thirds of the Pasifika people live in the Auckland region (with just over half of those living in South Auckland). The next biggest region outside of Auckland is Wellington, which has a Pasifika population of 36,000.
There appears to be a trend for population flows outside of Auckland. Regions such as Marlborough, Tasman and the Manawatu are all experiencing small increases in Pasifika population.
The difference in population profile, along with a higher fertility rate for the Pasifika population, will result in an increase in the number and proportion of Pasifika children and young people participating in ECE, schooling and tertiary sectors. It is estimated that Pasifika students will rise from 10% to 20% of the total school population by 2050.
Figure 1: Pasifika, age-sex distribution - 2013 census
Figure 2: NZ Total population, age-sex distribution - 2013 census
Age structure
The structure of Pasifika peoples' age profile is such that it is profoundly disproportionate, with many younger people and very few elderly. In 2013, the median age of Pasifika was 22 years, compared to 38 years for the total population. With such a high proportion of the population in their youth, this only emphasises the importance of education to this fast growing population.
Employment
In 2013, just under two-thirds of Pasifika adults2 were in the labour force. The percentage of Pasifika peoples in the labour force aged 15-64 years who were employed decreased to 76.3% from 97.3% in 2007. Men continue to be more likely to be in the labour force than women, however, women in the labour force show greater diversity in occupation than men.
Income
In 2013, the median annual income for Pasifika adults was $19,700, which is lower than the national median annual income of $28,500. Income levels are related to age and employment. As the Pasifika population has a large proportion of younger people, tending to have lower incomes of $5,000 or less, compared to older people, they more heavily contribute to the lower annual income.
Recent movements: 2013
In 2013, Pasifika learners showed improvement in many areas of education compared with nationwide general trends. Figure 1.1 shows a broad picture of where we are now in terms of the indicators, recent improvements and what improvement is required to reach the specific targets for the future.
Each spoke represents an indicator from this Report. The target for each measure has been adjusted to equal 1.00 (the black outer line). Each of the coloured lines represent the position of the indicator against the 2017 target for an individual year. The dark blue line represents the position of the indicator based on the 2013 data. A value of less than 1.00 means that the target has yet to be reached, while a value equal to or greater than 1.00 means the target has been achieved.
The distance between the dark blue line and the outer line shows how much change is required to reach the target. The distance between the dark blue line and the other years shows how much change has occurred in the past for that indicator. These distances are proportionately identical for each indicator. The 'distance' still required to reach the target does not show the ease or likelihood of achieving the target. The lack of improvement or deterioration between 2012 and 2013 also indicates where change may be more difficult.
Improvements have been made across all focus areas of the PEP, though action still needs to be taken to reach the targets set.
Figure 3: Proportion of target achieved (2010 to 2013)
Where we are: 2013
The following section provides a summary of the latest year's performance against the PEP. Data predominantly relates to 2013, however, more current 2014 data is used where available. Comparisons with non-Pasifika have been provided where relevant to the target set out in the PEP.
Early childhood education (ECE)
- Participation in ECE has continued to improve. For the year ending March 2014, 89.9% of Pasifika new entrants participated in ECE prior to enrolling at school.
- In 2013, 2.3% (96 services) of ECE services taught in a Pasifika language or culture over 50% of the time. This is up three services from 2012.
- In 2012, 21% of ECE services reviewed by the Education Review Office (ERO) were found to have either very or some responsive practices that enable Pasifika children to experience success.
- Across the 2013 calendar year, 1,264 Pasifika children (8.5% of all children) accessed and actively engaged in early intervention services.
Compulsory education
- In 2013, 64% of Pasifika students in Years 1-8 were at or above the National Standard for reading, 61% were at or above the Standard for mathematics and 58% were at or above the Standard for writing.
- In 2013, 18.3% of all Pasifika school leavers left school with less than a National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 1 qualification. This equates to 1,240 Pasifika students.
- Eighty-four percent of all 2013 Pasifika school leavers achieved the NCEA level 1 literacy and numeracy requirements.
- Seventy-one percent of all 2013 Pasifika 18-year-olds achieved NCEA level 2 or above; a 5.9 percentage point increase since 2011.
- Thirty-six percent of Pasifika school leavers in 2013 gained university entrance award or a level 3 qualification. This was a 2.6 percentage point increase on the 2012 attainment rate, although it is still 14.2 percentage points below that of non-Pasifika students.
- There has been a marked improvement in age-standardised suspension rates for Pasifika students; a 58% decrease from 10.3 to 4.3 per 1,000 between 2006 and 2013. The forecast position for 2017 is that a reduction to 3.6 per 1,000 will be met.
- The age-standardised exclusion rate for Pasifika students in 2013 was 1.7 per 1,000 students, a decrease of 22.3% since 2011.
- The age-standardised expulsion rate for Pasifika students in 2013 was 2.3 per 1,000 students, a decrease of 53% since 2008.
- In 2012, ERO found that 77% of schools were mostly inclusive and 16% had some inclusive practices regarding including students with high special education needs.
Tertiary education
- In 2013, the proportion of Pasifika people aged 18 to 24 years in level 4 and higher qualifications increased to 27%. This is a five percentage point increase on the participation rate in2008.
- Of Pasifika students who first enrolled in a level 4 qualification or above in 2012 78% were still studying in 2013. This is slightly below the first-year retention rate for non-Pasifika students of 80%.
- Of the full-time Pasifika students who began a qualification in 2009, 68% had completed this qualification by 2013. This compares to 76% for all domestic full-time students.
Education sector wide
- In 2013, 69.1% Pasifika ECE teachers were registered, an increase of 9% on the same measure in 2012.
- In 2012, the number of Pasifika teachers in compulsory schooling fell by eight teachers from 1,393 (2.7% of all teachers) in 2011 to 1,385 (2.7% of all teachers) in 2012.
Parents, families and communities
- In 2013, 39.2% of schools had fair Pasifika representation on the schools' board of trustees. This is based both on the number of Pasifika students and the number of positions on the board. See the Technical Notes for a more detailed definition of this.
- In a 2012 report, ERO identified five key factors that enabled educational success for Pasifika students, which included being actively engaged with Pasifika parents, families and communities. In many schools with low Pasifika achievement, these five key factors were not implemented correctly or needed strengthening.
Footnotes
- Quick Stats about Pacific Peoples Populations Structure Census 2013.
- Adults are people aged 15 years and over.
Navigation
Contact Us
Education Data Requests
If you have any questions about education data please contact us:
Email: Requests Data and Insights
Phone: +64 4 463 8065