Bay students match NZ's best swots, results show

Hawke's Bay high school students have shown they are up with the best in the country, last year's NCEA results bettering the national average in most areas.
But pass rates at Bay schools have slowed.
The raw statistics, released online by NZQA this week, showed percentage pass rates of Bay schools for NCEA levels 1, 2 and 3, based on participation.
Bay students who sat NCEA level 1 last year performed the best against the national average, with 8.2 per cent more students passing than the rest of the country. Level two and three students were ahead by 4.9 and 2.5 per cent respectively.
Local scholarship pass rates were slightly higher than the national average, with scholarship achievements of 22.9 per cent, compared to the rest of the country on 20.6 per cent. Achieved scholarships were down by about 1.3 per cent.
NZQA deputy chief executive of qualifications Bali Haque said while the raw data may show good results, comparisons between schools should be treated with caution.
"Schools are different in the way they design their courses and qualifications for students," he said. "Factors such as decile, roll numbers and courses offered, will influence a school's statistics."
Participation figures identify students who could potentially gain qualifications in a particular year, rather than including all students on a roll.
Students undertaking special-education courses, or alternative qualifications, are not included as attempting to gain NCEA qualifications.
A report for 2009, with an analysis of the statistics, will be released this month.