Highest pass rates in Maori and Chinese subjects

Maori language had the highest pass rates in the scholarship exam with 75 per cent; physical education had the lowest with no passes.

Although the general trends and wide discrepancies in exam subjects have been previously known, they have been based on raw numbers rather than pass rates.

The pass rates confirm low passes for sciences and much higher pass rates for languages.

The pass rates can be calculated from figures supplied yesterday in parliamentary questions from National education spokesman Bill English.

Of the 8109 students who sat scholarship at the end of last year, 21 per cent passed.

But when that is compared with the number of all students in level 3 of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement, only 1.7 per cent passed.

Before the new stand-alone scholarship was introduced last year, 3 to 4 per cent of the best bursary students won a scholarship. (Before that, it was a stand-alone exam.)

The pass rates confirm that most of the subjects in the sciences had low pass rates - below 10 per cent.

But so did visual arts, art history, and media studies.

Languages had the highest pass rates, with Maori on 75 per cent followed by Chinese on 74 per cent.

The English pass rate was lower at 38.3 per cent; geography was 37.5, history 29.3 and mathematics with calculus, 24.9 per cent.

Mr English and New Zealand First education spokesman Brian Donnelly both expressed frustration yesterday at the rate at which the information was being provided by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

They were also frustrated by the quality of the information.

Mr English accused the Government of working "in unison" with NZQA to avoid accountability.

Associate Education Minister David Benson Pope said information was not being hidden or withheld.

The delays were caused by the large volumes of information being requested by National: seven Official Information Act requests and 127 written parliamentary questions had been answered in the past 20 days or were currently being answered.

Mr Donnelly, the committee chairman, accused NZQA of giving "nonsense" explanations about the variability of results between subjects in NCEA levels one and two in a press statement on Wednesday.

Chief executive Karen van Rooyen said that variability was "as expected".

Mr Donnelly said: "Now is not the time for spin; it is the time for brutal analysis of what is occurring."

The low pass rates and discrepancies between subjects are being investigated in five separate inquiries.