NCEA: Systemic failure in education system

new-zealand-national-party

Thu Sep 07 2006 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

NCEA: Systemic failure in education system

Thursday, 7 September 2006, 1:03 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

Hon Bill English
National Party Education Spokesman

7 September 2006

The fact that one in six students at some of the country’s most affluent schools leave with very limited options for the future shows that under-achievement is systemic in the education system, says National’s Education spokesman, Bill English.

He has released figures showing that 27% of all students leave school without achieving the NCEA level 1 qualification –the equivalent of the old School Certificate. One in six students from high-decile (8-10) schools do not achieve the basic qualification.

“Many parents assume their child is guaranteed success if they attend a high-decile school, but these NCEA results prove that’s far from the case,” says Mr English.

“More than a quarter (28.3%) of students leave a high-decile school with just Level 1 NCEA or less. Any student knows that leaving school with a Level 1 pass means limited choices and difficult access to tertiary education and training.

“But Labour continues to count failure as success.”

Last week, the Ministry of Education claimed that just 13% of students leave school without a qualification.

But Mr English says Labour’s definition of qualification is “nonsense”, and the actual proportion of students who leave school without a qualification is more than double that.

“According to Labour, any student achieving 13 of the 80 NCEA credits required to reach level 1 NCEA has a qualification.

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“So Labour is counting the thousands of students who fail level 1 as a success. A student with just 13 credits does not have a qualification. They need 80 credits.

“Steve Maharey is misleading students and their parents by telling them that a handful of credits provides them with choices when they leave school,” says Mr English.

ENDS

Attached: Table showing number of students leaving secondary schools during 2005 by decile band and level of highest attainment
http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0609/Decile.xls

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