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.
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