A teenager working on maths problems on a worksheet. Photo: Unsplash/ Joshua Hoehne
Pass rates in crucial NCEA maths and literacy tests improved this year, but at least 34,800 teenagers, including most candidates from poor schools, failed.
Qualifications Authority figures showed just 63 percent of the 94,098 students who attempted either or both of the May and September numeracy tests were successful.
For writing the cumulative pass rate was 68 percent and for reading 72 percent.
All three results were better than last year when only 55 percent passed numeracy, 66 percent writing and 70 percent reading.
Students must pass all three tests before they can receive an NCEA qualification. Those who failed on their first attempt could try again later in the year or the following year, or until the end of 2027 complete an alternative group of standards.
The authority said more than 110,000 sat the tests with most (94,098) attempting the numeracy tests, 85,590 the reading tests and 86,418 the writing tests.
For each subject the largest group of candidates, about 50,000, were in Year 10 and they had higher higher pass rates than other year groups.
For example, the cumulative reading pass rate for Year 10s was 79 percent, compared to 63 percent for Year 11s and 53 percent for Year 12s.
Girls' cumulative pass rates were higher than boys for reading and writing, but lower in numeracy.
Their rates were reading 74, 75 and 62 percent compared with boys' cumulative figures of 69 percent for reading, 62 percent for writing and 64 percent for numeracy.
Students from schools facing "more" socioeconomic barriers as identified by the Education Ministry's equity index had much worse results than schools with "fewer" barriers.
A slim majority, 53 percent of students from schools facing more barriers passed the reading test, but only 48 percent passed the writing tests, and 40 percent the numeracy test.
In contrast, pass rates for students from schools facing fewer barriers were 89 percent for reading and for writing, and 80 percent for numeracy.
Earlier this year principals warned the tests could dramatically increase the number of school-leavers with no qualifications in poor communities.
Māori and Pacific students had lower pass rates than other groups.
European students recorded pass rates of 82 percent for reading, 75 percent for writing, and 71 percent for numeracy and Asian students 69, 69 and 71 percent.
Māori students' pass rates were 61 percent for reading, 56 percent for writing, and 48 percent for numeracy
For Pacific students the rates were 54 percent for reading, percent for 55 writing, and 40 percent for numeracy
