The National Certificate of Educational Achievement, or NCEA, has been New Zealand’s main secondary school qualification for more than 20 years.
But its future could be on the line, as more top schools plan to offer alternatives.
In the past few weeks, we’ve seen Epsom Girls’ Grammar announce it will offer Cambridge exams in 2026, and Mount Albert Grammar’s principal has said it’s under pressure to offer it too. Auckland Grammar’s principal wants NCEA “as we know it” abolished.
As the results from 2002 made their way online, the Education Minister at the time, Trevor Mallard, said the first NCEA stats were a “milestone for learning”. But, 23 years later, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said this week he was “taking on” NCEA.
This comes after a damning Government briefing raised significant concerns about the credibility of the qualification.
The document, obtained exclusively by the Herald, was presented by officials to Education Minister Erica Stanford in June. She is expected to announce plans soon for substantial changes to NCEA.
The Education Hub’s Dr Nina Hood told The Front Page she was not surprised by the push away from NCEA.
“There are a number of things that have been identified. One is around a lack of consistency. So we know that the way the qualification works, students can sit individual standards; they’re not necessarily doing a whole body of work within a single subject. They’re able, to some degree, to pick and choose.
“This has led to some students in some schools just opting into what are perceived to be the ‘easiest’ standards. In many instances, it has meant students are getting the qualification just through sitting internal assessments, coursework during the year that’s marked by school teachers.”
For parents looking for different options, there are two main alternative options offered by schools in New Zealand: the UK’s Cambridge International and Switzerland’s International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.
“Cambridge is probably your most traditional,” Hood said. “You would normally do it in your final two years of school. Your Year 12 and 13 students are usually taking four, maybe five, subjects in that, and they are primarily assessed through an end-of-year exam.
“Although some subjects do have some internal assessment component built into them, you do have far more of an exam focus. You pick the subjects that you’re going to do, and do the entirety of that subject.
“IB is in some ways similar, but it’s a more holistic system. It runs over the final two years of school and it comprises a mix of both external exams at the end of your course as well as a number of internal assessments.”
Hood said the key difference between the two is that IB requires more subjects and a range of them.
“For instance, you take a science, maths, English, you learn a language, you do a humanity or social science, but you also have learning that you do and activities that you do outside of your academic programme. They have something called the Theory of Knowledge, which is around philosophy, that all students take.
“All students are also required to do what they call CAS, which stands for creativity, activity and service. Something creative might be music, drama, or dance. An activity might be some sort of sport or physical activity, and some sort of service activity. So you’re getting quite a holistic, well-rounded aspect to your education.”
IB tends to be offered at private schools as teachers have to go through a rigorous training program in order to teach the qualification, Hood said.
She said that the main thing parents need to consider when looking at the different qualifications is what is best for their child.
" I think IB could definitely suit some people, but if you’ve got someone who has a particular interest in certain subjects, IB is actually really not going to suit them because you’re having to do a wide range of subjects, and that’s where NCEA can be really valuable because you can start to specialize in particular subjects."
And while internal assessments are a source of a lot of NCEA criticism, Hood said that it is important to have different pathways for different types of students, rather than a one size fits all approach.
“Personally, I think that there probably is a role for end of year exams, but I’m not sure that that’s the only method that we want to be using. And we know that in a number of subjects, actually having internals is also really important because there are things that you just can’t assess through an end of your exam.”
Listen to the full episode to hear about what the differences are between qualifications and what could be done to fix NCEA.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.