Many of the students enrolled with Te Kura are incapable of working online without significant support, says a whistleblower. File photo. Photo: 123RF
A whistleblower warns most of the 6000 at-risk students enrolled with Te Kura - formerly known as the Correspondence School - are sitting at home doing nothing.
The person - who spoke to RNZ on condition of anonymity - had first-hand knowledge of Te Kura's work with at-risk students.
They said many of the teenagers had no computer skills and were incapable of working online without significant support.
"They sit there and do nothing."
They said there was little support for the students and the situation was "an unseen and developing educational crisis".
"You are not going to turn these kids around unless there's effort from somebody," they said.
Figures provided to RNZ by Te Kura showed 60 percent of its full-time at-risk students did not achieve any internally-assessed NCEA credits last year.
But the figures also showed slight improvements in achievement rates compared with previous years.
Most of the students were referred by the Education Ministry because they refused to enrol in regular schools.
"Over the course of a typical year, we see referrals from nearly every secondary and intermediate school in New Zealand, as well as some primary schools," it said.
Te Kura told RNZ it currently had 8220 full-time students, including 6256 or 76 percent who were enrolled following referral by the Education Ministry or Oranga Tamariki, and were considered at-risk.
That was up from a roll of 4000 full-time students in 2013, of which 61 percent or 2440 were considered at-risk.
Te Kura said last year 39 percent of the full-time students enrolled through referrals achieved any internally-assessed NCEA credits, up from 34 percent in 2022.
"Referred ākonga often face significant barriers to learning, but we're proud of the progress many have made. Depending on the circumstances earning NCEA credits may not be a priority for some referred ākonga, who are generally under the age of 16," it said.
It said 40 percent of its full-time secondary-aged school leavers last year left Te Kura with no NCEA credits, but only 24 percent had completed an entire NCEA qualification.
"Many students leave Te Kura around their 16th birthday, often having spent less than a year on the roll, which impacts their ability to earn credits," it said.
Te Kura said the funding it received to support at-risk students would more than double from $1050 per student last year to $3500 by 2026.
The school did not provide figures showing how many of its full-time referred students did not complete any work but did not refute the allegation that about 75 percent of referred students did not complete any work.
It said so far this year 23 percent had not completed any work or attended online classes or face-to-face learning sessions and were deemed by their supervisors to be not engaged. That was down from 24 percent last year and 29 percent in 2022.
Te Kura said students who did not return any work could still be regarded as "engaged" with the school if their teacher knew they had work under way, or if they attended live online classes or face-to-face "Huinga Ako".
"This process is robustly moderated by Te Kura team leaders, and simply responding to phone calls or emails from their kaiako would not normally meet the criteria to record them as engaged," it said.
It said so far this year 23 percent of its full-time referred students had not returned any work or attended online or face-to-face learning sessions, about the same as last year and an improvement on the figure of 29 percent recorded in 2022.
However, only 324 of those students had been removed from Te Kura's roll compared to 445 last year and 366 in 2022.
The Education Review Office (ERO) reported in 2021 that education agencies were increasingly relying on Te Kura to take at-risk students and those students required intensive support that the school struggled to provide.
"Te Kura is stretched in doing this in relation to being a distance provider and with the resources available to it under current policy and funding settings," the review office said at the time.
ERO told RNZ it would review Te Kura again next year.
"Our review will look closely at the progress made towards the recommendations in our 2021 report. Following our last report, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu received additional funding in Budget 2022 to scale up support for at-risk students. Our review will include looking at the impact this funding increase has had on this group of learners," it said.
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