Final results have indicated that barely half of students passed the critical NCEA literacy and numeracy tests.
The results show that more than 100,000 students attempted at least one of the tests over the two rounds, with more than 80,000 sitting each subject. They had pass rates of 55 percent in numeracy, 66 percent in writing and 70 percent in reading.
However, the caveat to this is that students must pass all three before they can receive any NCEA qualifications.
The results indicated that 39,000 students remained ineligible for the NCEA certificate.
In 2023, 66,500 students attempted the two rounds of tests with overall pass rates of 69 percent in reading, 64 percent in writing and 62 percent in numeracy.
The government has splurged out $2.5 million in an attempt to assist 10,000 students and 160 schools to pass tests.
Secondary Principals Association president Vaughan Couillault said the results showed some improvements in the literacy pass rates since 2023, but the “blip” in the numeracy result was concerning.
However there are positives, most of the students who attempted the tests this year were in Year 10 (51,252), with a further 25,820 in Year 11, groups that had at least one or two more years of schooling in which to give the tests another crack.
