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Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Principal not surprised more students leaving school unqualified
An Auckland secondary school teacher says he is not surprised by the increasing rate of teenagers leaving high school with no qualifications, and does not anticipate the situation improving. Of last year's school-leavers, 16% had no qualifications, the highest figure in a decade. It equates to about 10,600 teenagers, and is 0.4 of a percentage point more than the previous year and about six percentage points higher than the 10-11% recorded in the years prior to the start of the pandemic. The percentage of school leavers with no NCEA certificate has been rising since 2020, a trend teachers blamed on the after-effects of Covid-19 lockdowns combined with high employment prompting more young people to leave school earlier than they otherwise would. Papakura High School principal Simon Craggs said changes to literacy and numeracy standards were restricting students. "It's not really a surprise to me," he said. "Since they changed the literacy and numeracy requirements that more and more students, particularly from low socio-economic backgrounds, ESOL backgrounds, Maori and Pasifika, weren't going to be able to access qualifications." The Education Ministry's figures showed 13% of last year's leavers had not reached the literacy and numeracy benchmark compared to about 10% under the previous requirement in pre-pandemic years. The figures showed 81% of last year's leavers had stayed at school until the age of 17 or beyond, up from 79% the previous year with bigger increases in retention at schools in poorer communities. Craggs said the revised criteria for the co-requisite tests, known as common assessment activities (CAAs), had "restricted students". "There are other factors involved, but I would say it's 90% due to the new CAA tests in particular," he said. "The problem I have with that is not that we're trying to strengthen literacy and numeracy, the problem is the test itself is very narrow. "It's not actually measuring functional literacy and numeracy." Māori had the worst results — 28% left with no qualification last year, compared with 19% of Pacific leavers and 14% of European/Pākehā leavers. Papakura High School had scrapped NCEA level 1, instead opting for a two-year level 2 programme. "[Level 1] was too hard for our students to do the co-requisite, get their literacy and numeracy, and get 60 credits," Craggs said. However because students had to stay longer at school to earn a qualification, a higher number of unqualified students would drop out, he said. A tight labour market was also limiting the options for young people. "That's another scary thing," Craggs said. "A lot of them aren't going into quality employment. They are going into employment, but it's casual, reduced hours, take what you get sort of thing. It's very difficult for them to be accessing quality employment. "Maybe three or four years ago they could go into a good full-time job, and build a career from that. They're not able to do that at the moment." Training programmes such as People Potential were proving to be a viable alternative for young people, although spots were tight. Craggs said he did not believe an overhaul of NCEA would lead to declining rates of unqualified school leavers. "If we were looking at making some tweaks to NCEA, making it a better qualification, making the literacy and numeracy requirement more [functional] then we might have some more optimism for the future. "I'm not sure that just dumping NCEA and creating a new qualification which is subject-based is necessarily going to make a big difference to those students."
RNZ News
2 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Auckland teacher 'not surprised' at increasing rate of teens leaving school unqualified
Principal of Papakura high Simon Craggs. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman An Auckland secondary school teacher says he is not surprised by the increasing rate of teenagers leaving high school with no qualifications, and does not anticipate the situation improving. Of last year's school-leavers, 16 percent had no qualifications, the highest figure in a decade . It equates to about 10,600 teenagers, and is 0.4 of a percentage point more than the previous year and about six percentage points higher than the 10-11 percent recorded in the years prior to the start of the pandemic. The percentage of school leavers with no NCEA certificate has been rising since 2020, a trend teachers blamed on the after-effects of Covid-19 lockdowns combined with high employment prompting more young people to leave school earlier than they otherwise would. Papakura High School principal Simon Craggs told Morning Report changes to literacy and numeracy standards were restricting students. "It's not really a surprise to me," he said. "Since they changed the literacy and numeracy requirements that more and more students, particularly from low socio-economic backgrounds, ESOL backgrounds, Maori and Pasifika, weren't going to be able to access qualifications." The Education Ministry's figures showed 13 percent of last year's leavers had not reached the literacy and numeracy benchmark compared to about 10 percent under the previous requirement in pre-pandemic years. The figures showed 81 percent of last year's leavers had stayed at school until the age of 17 or beyond, up from 79 percent the previous year with bigger increases in retention at schools in poorer communities. Craggs said the revised criteria for the co-requisite tests, known as common assessment activities (CAAs), had "restricted students". "There are other factors involved, but I would say it's 90 percent due to the new CAA tests in particular," he said. "The problem I have with that is not that we're trying to strengthen literacy and numeracy, the problem is the test itself is very narrow. "It's not actually measuring functional literacy and numeracy." Māori had the worst results - 28 percent left with no qualification last year, compared with 19 percent of Pacific leavers and 14 percent of European/Pākehā leavers. Papakura High School had scrapped NCEA level 1, instead opting for a two-year level 2 programme. "[Level 1] was too hard for our students to do the co-requisite, get their literacy and numeracy, and get 60 credits," Craggs said. However because students had to stay longer at school to earn a qualification, a higher number of unqualified students would drop out, he said. A tight labour market was also limiting the options for young people. "That's another scary thing," Craggs said. "A lot of them aren't going into quality employment. They are going into employment, but it's casual, reduced hours, take what you get sort of thing. It's very difficult for them to be accessing quality employment. "Maybe three or four years ago they could go into a good full-time job, and build a career from that. They're not able to do that at the moment." Training programmes such as People Potential were proving to be a viable alternative for young people, although spots were tight. Craggs said he did not believe an overhaul of NCEA would lead to declining rates of unqualified school leavers. "If we were looking at making some tweaks to NCEA, making it a better qualification, making the literacy and numeracy requirement more [functional] then we might have some more optimism for the future. "I'm not sure that just dumping NCEA and creating a new qualification which is subject-based is necessarily going to make a big difference to those students." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
17-07-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Principals fear increase in students from poor communities leaving school without qualifications
Papakura High School principal Simon Craggs. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman Principals warn the number of school-leavers with no qualifications could spike in poor communities this year. One South Auckland principal said as many as a third of teenagers leaving schools in Tai Tokerau and South Auckland could have no NCEA certificates - double the normal figures. Their warnings followed the release of results from high-stakes NCEA literacy and numeracy tests held in May. Before the Covid pandemic,14 to 17 percent of school-leavers in Tai Tokerau and South Auckland had no qualifications. The after-effects of lockdowns drove that figure to 21 percent in 2023. Principals had been hoping numbers would improve, but told RNZ pass rates of 39-49 percent for Northland and South Auckland teens in NCEA reading, writing and maths tests did not bode well. Looking at the socio-economic factors, 34 percent of students from the third of schools facing the highest barriers passed the numeracy assessment, 41 percent passed reading and 35 percent passed writing. Students could attempt the tests again in September, but Simon Craggs from Papakura High School said it was likely a significant number would fail and leave without an NCEA qualification. "A third would probably be realistic because you're going to have students in Year 13 who still haven't achieved the corequisites despite having Year 11, Year 12 working toward them," he said. Craggs said schools were working hard to help students over the line - either by preparing them for the September tests or through the 20 English and maths credits they could use until 2027 to meet the benchmark. Aorere College principal Leanne Webb said she had hoped the unqualified school-leaver rate would improve this year but there was a danger more young people would leave school unable to enrol in further study because they had failed the tests. "They'll walk away from school, there'll be no recognition of what they have achieved at school and when times are tough, and times are tough, and there aren't sufficient places in tertiary organisations for them, who gets shoved to the bottom of the heap? It'll be the kids that don't have a qualification. What is there for them then? Do they just get to roam the streets?" she said. Aorere College principal Leanne Webb. Photo: RNZ Webb said her students' achievement of the literacy and numeracy corequisite had improved, but for many that was due to the alternative 20-credit pathway rather than the online tests. She said the problem with that option was the 20 credits could not be counted toward the 60 required for an NCEA certificate. "If you take away 10 credits out of their English achievement and 10 credits out of their maths achievement, they then have to get another 20 credits on top of their programme in order to get NCEA, that's the problem," she said. "Last year, while we were pleased with our results, it came at the expense of achieving NCEA." Both principals said their students were doing better than last year but government-funded assistance had not been much help. Webb said her school did not take up the offered training because it did not fit with the school's timetable and Craggs said the training was of limited use. "I don't think the on-the-ground support that we have been looking for has really been provided. So we're just doing our own thing and working within our own resources to improve," he said. "There's certainly a lot more interest from our senior advisers at the ministry in our results and how things are going, but not a lot in the way of support." The next round of literacy and numeracy tests is scheduled for September. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
