NCEA reported results plunge year on year
WELLINGTON: Teenagers had about 300,000 fewer NCEA results in the bag last month than at the corresponding time last year, New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) figures show.
The figures also show big variations in the way the pandemic has affected NCEA results in different parts of the country.
By October 28, schools in the Tasman region and ManawatuWhanganui had reported much fewer results compared with the corresponding time last year than schools in Otago, Nelson and Gisborne.
Nationally, schools had reported 22% fewer notachieved results, 18% fewer achieved and merit results and 15% fewer excellence results.
The number of achieved, merit and excellence results totalled 1,718,698 — a drop of 359,588, or 17%, from the corresponding time last year.
In Auckland, which has had two lockdowns that closed schools, notachieved results were down 26%, while achieved results were down 22%, merit results were down 20% and excellence results were down 17%.
The pandemic appears to have had the least effect on schools in Otago, where achieved results were 9% lower, merit results were down 11% and excellence results were down 10%.
In Tasman, notachieved results were down 37%, achieved results were down 22%, merit results were down 34% and excellence results were down 40%.
In ManawatuWhanganui, schools reported 22% fewer achieved results, 20% fewer merit results and 19% fewer excellence results.
The NZQA said schools had deferred assessments until later in the year.
‘‘With the 2020 school terms and holidays being altered in response to Covid19, key reporting dates are later this year than last year. Results will continue to be reported by schools into December,’’ the authority said.
Secondary Principals’ Association president Deidre Shea said the lag in reporting of results was in line with what schools expected.
The extra learning recognition credits available for pupils this year would give many pupils enough credits to ensure they gained their NCEA qualifications, she said.
The credits give pupils in Auckland up to 20% of those required for an NCEA certificate, and up to 13% for pupils elsewhere.
The principal of the largest secondary school in the Tasman district, Scott Haines, of Waimea College, was not aware of any particular problems with pupil achievement in the area as a result of the pandemic.
The relatively low number of results reported by the region’s schools most likely was due to delays in assessment and reporting of results, and his own school recently sent a large number of results to the authority.
Some pupils had not engaged well with learning since the Alert Level 4 lockdown earlier this year, but others had risen to the challenge, he said.
Nationally, the figures showed little difference between Maori, Pakeha and Asian results, although Asian pupils had only 13% fewer excellence results than last year.
Pasifika pupils reported the biggest drop in notachieveds and achieveds at 25% and 20% respectively, but the smallest drop in merits and excellences at 15% and 12% compared with the corresponding time last year.
There was no clear pattern when schools were considered by decile, although the number of excellence results reported by decile 1 and 2 schools were only 9% and 11% lower than last year respectively. The figures showed that the proportion of notachieved, achieved, merit and excellence results was almost identical to last year. — RNZ