National secondary school statistics encouraging

6 April 2006

National secondary school statistics show some encouraging trends

The latest statistics on the performance of students in secondary school shows an overall increase in the percentage achieving NCEA qualifications.

Qualifications Authority Acting Chief Executive Karen Sewell says the percentage of students gaining NCEA level 1 numeracy and literacy requirements has also increased since 2003.

"It is also encouraging to see an increase in the relative percentage of students in lower decile schools achieving NCEA qualifications, in particular, level 2 NCEA in decile 1-3 schools.

"These points illustrate a small sample of the information that is now available to schools on our website. They have more information than ever before about the performance of their students and those in the rest of the country. It will also provide the wider education sector with information about longer-term trends in student performance," says Karen Sewell.

"The information helps all of us working in education identify areas that need our attention, for example, the under achievement of some boys, and further improving the performance of Maori and Pacific Island students."

The Qualifications Authority also released further details about NCEA levels 1, 2 and 3 external examination results.

"The consistency is significantly greater between 2004 and 2005 than it was between 2003 and 2004," says Karen Sewell.

"The results in the big subjects like English, Biology, Maths, Science, Chemistry and Physics, were consistent with what was expected. In the majority of standards the success rate of students was as expected. However, in the remaining standards the actual performance of students was sometimes better than expected.

Full details of the national statistics are available on the Qualifications Authority website www.nzqa.govt.nz

ENDS

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