The Facts, Summarised by Centrist

National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) measures yearly academic achievement by assessing students against standards, with each standard covering a specific set of skills and knowledge. For example, a Science standard is: Investigate implications of electricity and magnetism for everyday life. When you achieve a standard, you gain credits. You must achieve a certain number of credits to gain NCEA.

There are 3 levels of NCEA. In general, students work through levels 1 to 3 in years 11 to 13 at school.

Achievement at each level or in a course is recognised with Endorsements. Generally, university admission requires at least level 2 NCEA. 

From the 2022 School Leavers data recently released:

• 15% left without any NCEA qualification (up 50% since 2017’s 10% figure)
  • 25% left without getting NCEA Level 2
    • 48% (~1/2) left without getting NCEA Level 3 or University Entrance (UE) requirements 

21.5% left before turning 17-years-old (up 36% since 2017’s 15.8% figure)

• 33% more 16-year-olds left school
• 63% more 15-year-olds left school
  (data for 14-year-olds wasn’t provided)

Read more over at The Facts