North Canterbury Principals Pleased With NCEA Results

Thursday, 6 February 2025, 10:11 pm
Article: David Hill - Local Democracy Reporter

North Canterbury schools are reporting strong NCEA results as they continue to back the qualification.

Secondary school students throughout the region have achieved results at or above the national average, according to provisional data released by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).

Rangiora High School board of trustees presiding member Simon Green said NCEA continues to be a major focus at the school.

‘‘We are proud of the efforts our students and teachers demonstrated towards NCEA in 2024.
‘‘Although our results are pleasing at a national level, our aspiration at Rangiora is for every student to succeed.’’

Principal Bruce Kearney said his school’s NCEA level one and university entrance results were on par with the national average, while level two and three results were above.

Provisional data from NZQA found 70 percent of year 11 students at participating schools obtained NCEA level one, compared to 81.9% in 2023.

Students must now obtain literacy and numeracy credits to be eligible for NCEA at any level.

Level one was revised last year with less assessments available, which may account for the lower pass rate.

Provisional results show a 72.7% pass rate for level two (compared to 73.2% in 2023) and 68.2% for level three (67.7%), while 48.2% obtained university entrance (49.7%).

In November, Education Minister Erica Stanford said she was open to NCEA level one being scrapped, following an Education Review Office report which found it was not fair or reliable and confused families.

More than a quarter of schools no longer offered it.

Rangiora New Life School students achieved pass rates of 91% for level one, 85% for level two, 78% for level three and 67% for university entrance.

Principal Stephen Walters said piloting the new literacy and numeracy assessments and NCEA changes ahead of the national rollout ‘‘has borne fruit’’.

‘‘I am very, very pleased with our NCEA results.

‘‘On every measure, we are ahead of the national average and in many cases well ahead.’’

At Kaiapoi High School, the level one and three pass rates were on par with the national average, while 85.9% of students passed level two.

After expressing concerns new literacy and numeracy pass rates could leave to some students leaving school with no qualification, principal Jason Reid said the school’s results were well ahead of the national average.

He said the results reflected the work of local primary schools in the Te Kāhui Ako Kātote (Kaiapoi community ako), which were early adopters of structured literacy.

Oxford Area School principal Mike Hart said he was proud of his students, with level three and university entrance results ‘‘significantly exceeding the past five years’’.

Amuri Area School principal Matt Barlow said his students achieved above the national averages at all three levels.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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