Girls doing well in education

Education Minister Hekia Parata has released statistics on how well girls are achieving in education, acknowledging International Women’s Day.

In 2012, around 80 per cent of our female school leavers - that’s around 26,776 students - achieved at least NCEA 2, and provisional results suggest that the proportion will be even higher in 2013. More than half of our young women achieved university entrance in 2012, a 5.2 per cent increase over the previous year.

“Girls continue to achieve higher levels of qualifications as they become greater contributors to society,” says Ms Parata.

Reporting against National Standards has also shown evidence of incremental improvement between 2011 and 2012, by girls, in reading, writing and maths, with around 80 per cent of all girls at or above standard for reading; and around 75 per cent for maths and writing.

“These results reflect the great work being done in our schools, in communities and in homes to raise student achievement,” Ms Parata says.

“Over the past two years we’ve collected data from across the whole school system so we can see how it’s performing at every level and where we need to target resources.

“As part of our Better Public Service Targets, we are focused on 85 per cent of all 18 year-olds achieving at least NCEA Level 2 or an equivalent qualification in 2017. This target has encouraged schools and their communities to set their own targets and work towards achieving them.”

“It is important that we all, parents, schools and local communities, keep up the momentum so that even more young people, both female and male, can succeed in education,” Ms Parata says.

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