Describing+the+Problem

= What is Success for Our Students =

The Ministry of Education (2008), suggest that the introduction of NCEA has reduced the rate of learners leaving school with “little or no formal qualifications” from 18 to 5 percent. In the same report however they also state that 18.2% of students leave school without achieving Level 1 NCEA certificate. While the ministry pat themselves on the back for this ‘significant improvement’, it seems that they would be quite content to accept a student who has no school qualifications as a success. I imagine that most New Zealanders would hold their nations educational achievement standards far higher than to accept almost 1 in 5 secondary school students are leaving school without their NCEA Level 1 certificate.

When we compare our statistics to those of the US and the UK, the problem becomes even more significant. In 2008, the proportion of students who left school in the US without achieving a diploma or GED certificate was 8.0 percent (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010), and in the UK 8.1 percent of students did not pass at least 5 GCSE subjects or obtain an equivalent qualification (Department for Education, 2009). The comparison is stark when we conclude that New Zealand has more schools leavers with no qualifications than that of both the US and the UK combined.

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