The latest IPSOS poll is anything but good reading for National with Labour favoured to better manage 9 of the top 11 issues – including Education. The respondents are wrong on Education as there is incremental progress at present. Much more should be being done in a range of ways but it is not the same level of disaster created by Hipkins and Tinetti.
Each year I do a data process that includes every high school in NZ across a range of measures based on their leavers data. I am about to get the raw data to do that work. Some full system data is now available and I am really happy to say that there have been improvements.
Some important information is contained in the introduction to the data on Education Counts.
“The attainment of an upper secondary school qualification is linked to labour force status and income levels. Modelling done by the Ministry in 2024 of earnings at age 30 showed income premiums for those attaining a Level 2 qualification, a Level 3 qualification or for meeting the requirements for University Entrance (UE). These were around $10,000 higher for learners with a Level 2 or Level 3 qualification and $23,000 higher for learners with UE compared to those with no qualifications. The findings from the modelling were also consistent with other Ministry research showing adults with no qualifications earned almost 20% less in weekly income and around 12% less in hourly earnings than those with school qualifications.
Every year around 60,000 young people leave school and face choices about what to do next. Not being in employment, further education, or training (NEET) affects around 30% of school leavers overall in the first year after they finish school. School leavers who leave school without at least NCEA Level 2 are more likely to be in this group – almost 50% for leavers with only NCEA Level 1 and almost 70% for leavers with no qualification, compared to around one-third for leavers with NCEA Level 2.”
Overall School Leavers Results
By Ethnicity (2025)
Notes:
– Over a quarter of Maori youth are leaving with no qualifications.
– At every level Maori do better when learning predominantly in Maori.
By Gender (2025)
By Socio-Economic Risk Factors 2025
(NB: With no obvious logic the Ministry of Education breaks the Equity Index range for schools into 7 parts with approximately the same number of students in each. To twist things a little more – the lowest EQI schools are labelled “Fewest” meaning low numbers of “at risk” students, “below average” means not too many at risk students, “above average” means quite a lot of them.)
A LONG way to go – especially re ethnicity gaps and the huge range over socio-economics – but clearly the change in trend direction is a positive.
ps: The people on Education Counts (as a part of the Ministry of Education) are outstanding and always good to deal with.
Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was published HERE
“The attainment of an upper secondary school qualification is linked to labour force status and income levels. Modelling done by the Ministry in 2024 of earnings at age 30 showed income premiums for those attaining a Level 2 qualification, a Level 3 qualification or for meeting the requirements for University Entrance (UE). These were around $10,000 higher for learners with a Level 2 or Level 3 qualification and $23,000 higher for learners with UE compared to those with no qualifications. The findings from the modelling were also consistent with other Ministry research showing adults with no qualifications earned almost 20% less in weekly income and around 12% less in hourly earnings than those with school qualifications.
Every year around 60,000 young people leave school and face choices about what to do next. Not being in employment, further education, or training (NEET) affects around 30% of school leavers overall in the first year after they finish school. School leavers who leave school without at least NCEA Level 2 are more likely to be in this group – almost 50% for leavers with only NCEA Level 1 and almost 70% for leavers with no qualification, compared to around one-third for leavers with NCEA Level 2.”
Overall School Leavers Results
By Ethnicity (2025)
Notes:
– Over a quarter of Maori youth are leaving with no qualifications.
– At every level Maori do better when learning predominantly in Maori.
By Gender (2025)
By Socio-Economic Risk Factors 2025
(NB: With no obvious logic the Ministry of Education breaks the Equity Index range for schools into 7 parts with approximately the same number of students in each. To twist things a little more – the lowest EQI schools are labelled “Fewest” meaning low numbers of “at risk” students, “below average” means not too many at risk students, “above average” means quite a lot of them.)
A LONG way to go – especially re ethnicity gaps and the huge range over socio-economics – but clearly the change in trend direction is a positive.
ps: The people on Education Counts (as a part of the Ministry of Education) are outstanding and always good to deal with.
Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was published HERE
5 comments:
>"At every level Maori do better when learning predominantly in Maori."
Does this come down to a self-fulfilling prophecy? Are these youngsters doing the same courses as non-Maori or are they mostly enrolled in courses that mostly Maori take?
The fourth Table comes down to a tautology - saying the same thing in two different ways.
Table 3 attracts my attention because it implies continuing male disadvantage (which of course doesn't matter). See my 2012 NZCPR Guest Editorial article "Making schooling work for all (even those problem teenage boys)." Is this issue being addressed or is it not politically correct enough to bother with?
Posted on September 30, 2012
What immediately struck me was what you highlighted first, Barend. While I'm no teacher, this simply defies common sense and I'll wager apples are certainly not being compared with aporo. But then, why should I be surprised that Machiavellianism lives on when it comes to such matters?
And, yes, what is being done about the lower achievement levels of males?" Portable access to the internet won't be assisting that cohort.
I struggle with the ‘chicken and egg’ here. It is asserted that ‘kids do better because they gain L2,L3 and UE qualifications’ .Could it not instead be ‘kids who are better do better, and the attainment of L2,L3 and UE are simply co-incidental?’
When is it going to sink in that traditional learning methods produce better results This is vividly illustrated by Katherine Burbalsinghe in a low decile -high equity school - in a poor suburb school of London . Her secondary students perform as well as students at prestigious Eton College. No money is not the answer to all this underachievement and inequity. It is methods of teaching and traditional values including work ethic , discipline. as well. The persecution Ms Burbalsinghe receives from the media is shameful
What we in NZ , had earlier last century was world -class and there was certainly .no long tail of underachievement as we have now. It was a product of more traditional education . We have had at least 50 years of the Dark Ages in education and Progressivism and people like Marie Clay are the villains in this .Of course academia is never going to show remorse for this .fiasco they created. Institutions never do they just create yet another sociological department which keeps blaming socio-economic conditions for any failures of students . Gaynor
"Maori kids learn better when learning in Maori" Thats ok at school but what happens when they get out in the real world. They will be at a disadvantage because most jobs require understanding in English! They are kicking the can down the road as they will have more difficulty coping outside their cloistered school environment. And colonisation will get the blame, as always
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