Schools introduce lower-bar qualification as one in five leavers exits with nothing

Summarised by Centrist

About 40 schools are introducing a separate qualification for students unable to meet NCEA requirements, as the proportion of teenagers leaving school with no qualification reaches 19%.

The New Zealand Certificate of Foundation Skills was originally offered by polytechnics and other tertiary providers. Teachers have adapted it for use in schools, with the Education Ministry funding its expansion last year.

Like NCEA, the certificate is available at levels 1, 2 and 3 and requires 60 credits. It covers literacy and numeracy, along with skills such as communication, leadership, resilience and self-management.

However, teachers say it is intended partly for students who cannot meet NCEA’s literacy and numeracy requirements.

“There’s a group of students who either for cognitive reasons or high neurodiversity or maybe other reasons are unable to engage with the curriculum level that is required for those literacy and numeracy exams,” Pukekohe High School teacher Esther Williams said.

At Taita College, teacher Jenny Wooding said the programme placed the “goalposts” within students’ reach.

“Otherwise they’d be alienated from school because no matter how hard they tried NCEA would be just out of reach,” she said.

The schools are not lowering the standards required to earn NCEA. Instead, they are offering a separate and more attainable qualification so students who struggle with the mainstream system do not leave with nothing.

Students can still complete NCEA standards alongside the Foundation Skills certificate, and some later move into apprenticeships, employment or degree-level study.

Williams said schools offering the programme typically placed about 10% of their students in it and argued it could halve the number leaving without a qualification.

She said the alternative could become more important when the government replaces NCEA in 2028 with a less flexible qualification and tougher literacy and numeracy requirements.

Read more at RNZ

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