The Gisborne region had the worst statistics where only 33 percent of its school-leavers had at least NCEA level 3 or UE and 24 percent had no qualifications. Photo: 123RF
The number of teenagers leaving school with no qualifications spiked last year.
Official figures show 15 percent or about 9600 of the 64,400 students who finished school last year did not have any level of the NCEA, up from 11 percent in 2019 before the pandemic began and slightly worse than the previous worst figure of 14 percent recorded in 2012.
A Ministry of Education document blamed the increase of no qualifications on more students leaving school before they turned 17 and fewer schools offering a full NCEA level 1 course.
The effect was strongest in decile 1 to 2 schools, where 26 percent of students left with no qualifications.
The figures ranged from 80 percent of leavers at one decile 1 school having no qualifications while at another it was closer to just 5 percent.
Among Māori students in English-medium schools, 27 percent left school last year with no qualifications, a much worse result than the low of 18 percent recorded in 2017.
For Māori teenagers learning predominantly in te reo Māori the figure was 17 percent.
The figures showed 21 percent of school-leavers last year were under the age of 17, the worst figure since 2009 and well off the best figure of 15 percent recorded in 2015.
Among male school-leavers, 24 percent were under 17 last year, compared with 19 percent of female school-leavers
The ministry's document said 15 percent of last year's under-17-year-old school-leavers left because they were continuously absent from school, the highest rate since 2012 and three percentage points more than in 2021.
It said just over 5 percent of last year's under-17 leavers moved overseas, slightly more than in the preceding two years, but less than in pre-Covid-19 years.
More than a third (36 percent) of last year's Māori school-leavers were under 17, as were 23 percent of Pacific school-leavers.
NCEA attainment falls
Among last year's school leavers 85 percent had at least level NCEA 1 or equivalent, 75 percent at least level 2, and 52 percent at least level 3.
The level 2 figure was a sharp drop from the 79 percent recorded the previous year and the lowest figure since 2012.
Only 61 percent of teens leaving decile 1 to 2 schools had at least level 2, compared to 91 percent of those leaving decile 9-10 schools.
The rate for Māori school-leavers was 59 percent, down from 64 percent the previous year, and for Pacific students 69 percent, eight percentage points lower than in 2021.
The figure of 52 percent for NCEA level 3 was the lowest since 2014 and down from a peak of 60 percent in 2020.
Less than 40 percent of last year's leavers had University Entrance (UE), the lowest figure in the past decade of records.
Most Asian school-leavers - 74 percent - had at least NCEA 3, ahead of Pākehā with 54 percent, 43 percent for Pacific school leavers and 32 percent for Māori in English-speaking education and 51 percent for Māori learning mostly in te reo Māori.
A graph showing the percentage of school leavers (broken down into ethnicities) that met NCEA Level 1 literacy and numeracy requirements. Photo: Supplied / Ministry of Education
The Gisborne region had the worst statistics. Only 33 percent of its school-leavers had at least NCEA level 3 or UE and 24 percent had no qualifications.
In Auckland, 61 percent of last year's school-leavers had at least NCEA 3 or UE and in the Wellington and Otago regions only 10 percent of leavers had no qualifications.
Secondary Principals Association president Vaughan Couillault told RNZ high employment prompted a lot of teenagers to leave school last year before they had completed NCEA qualifications.
"There were far too many students leaving school earlier than we would like because you've got a situation where the economy was almost at full employment and everybody could get a job and so they sacrificed that sort of longer-term education journey for the immediate reward of employment, which could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing depending on the nature of the employment they're going into," he said.
"If you left school halfway through Year 12, didn't get your NCEA level 2, but you went into a boat-building apprenticeship or a sparky apprenticeship or any sort of trade really, actually it's probably a good thing. But if you went into a job that was lower-paid, isn't likely to add value to you from a learner perspective and is a little bit more of a career cul de sac then that's not a good thing and staying at school might have been better for you."
Couillault said pandemic-related disruption to teenagers' education might also have prompted more students to leave school early and with lower qualifications than they otherwise might have achieved.
He said 2022 was particularly bad and many students fell so far behind with their schoolwork due to illness and absence that they simply gave up and left school.
"I think we're still suffering from the hangover of that and now chuck on top of that the economic environment that we're in in terms of such a tight labour market across the board it's a bit of a perfect storm."
Couillault said it appeared fewer students were leaving school early this year and he was aware of several schools where rolls were increasing rather than decreasing as the year went on.
The Ministry of Education said a key driver of NCEA levels for school leavers in 2022 were high employment rates for young people aged between 15 and 24 years old and disruptions due to Covid-19.
Hautū (leader) Curriculum Centre Ellen MacGregor-Reid said the ministry had a significant programme of work focused on improving school attendance and engagement in learning.
"For young people who have left school with low or no qualifications, options are offered for them to reengage in learning to gain NCEA.
"For example, funding was increased for the Youth Guarantee, which can now also be undertaken part-time, enabling young people to balance study or training with other responsibilities, including work."