A major announcement is expected to be made by the Government today on the future of the NCEA system, the country’s main secondary school qualification.
The Herald understands consultation will begin on a proposal to make changes to the qualification, with teachers, parents, the industry and others likely to be invited to give feedback.
Today’s proposal is thought to be significant. It will be unveiled at an event in Auckland attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford, both of whom have said they don’t want to just tinker with the system.
Luxon, who sees education as one of his passions in politics, has said he is up for a “fundamental overhaul” of the NCEA, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement.
It’s understood the proposal aims to make the high school qualification clearer for students, as well as parents wanting to be involved in their child’s learning. The Government also wants to ensure greater consistency in how the qualification is delivered nationwide.
At the moment, schools and students pick and choose from a wide range of disparate subjects and standards. Concerns have been raised that this means their learning often lacks direction or they don’t engage in “core” learning.
These issues have been laid out in a series of damning reports recently on the state of qualification.
The Education Review Office (ERO) has called the NCEA “difficult to understand” and has said it doesn’t prepare students for future achievement. One recommendation it’s made is to drop NCEA Level 1 entirely, something many schools have already done.
The Herald has also revealed two ministerial briefings from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) warning the NCEA faces a credibility crisis over its “overused” flexibility, a lack of coherent vocational education pathways, students gaming the system to accumulate credits, and an over-reliance on internal assessments.
In several interviews with the Herald, the Education Minister has made comments that hint at what today’s proposal could involve.
Notably, she’s raised the possibility that some of the current system’s flexibility may need to be replaced with more structure.
“Huge amount of flexibility has done us a disservice in some cases,” Stanford said last week.
“That’s the questions we’ll be asking, do we need to trade off some of that flexibility to make sure that we’ve got good coherent deep packages of learning that are consistent across the country?”
There is currently no nationally compulsory NCEA course, meaning schools and students have some freedom to decide which subjects and standards they offer and sit.
While numeracy and literacy co-requisites have been introduced, officials say there is otherwise “no core learning required to achieve subjects within the qualification”.
“This design feature of NCEA can influence how programmes of learning are constructed, with some being structured around combinations of standards that are perceived to be ‘easier’, to maximise credit accumulation, and help students achieve the minimum 60-credit threshold,” the NZQA said in one paper.
Students gather credits from a “wide range” of standards, which officials said can come at “the expense of coherent course design”.
Another document from the NZQA focused on vocational education came to a similar conclusion when looking at how students engage with unit standards, which assess practical skills rather than traditional curriculum subjects.
“While students may be accumulating credits, the patterns suggest that these are not always part of structured or purposeful vocational learning pathways,” it said.
On Friday, Stanford praised “parts” of the NCEA “you would want to retain”, mentioning “some of the flexibility”.
However, she said principals knew “the flexibility has gone way too far and has really masked the fact we have had declining standards”.
Pulling back some of that flexibility and honing in on core learning would be in line with this Government’s “teaching the basics brilliantly” approach to education, which is requiring an hour of reading, writing and maths a day for students in Year 1 to 8.
“Is [the NCEA] actually teaching our kids the core educational components that they need to have in order to enter the workforce and access higher paying jobs?” the Prime Minister asked last month.
Asked by the Herald about the concerns with the NCEA system’s flexibility and whether he wanted a more structured course, Luxon said he didn’t want to get ahead of Stanford’s work.
“But you are quite right. If you go and talk to parents – I have had both my kids go through the system – it’s quite easy to assemble a bunch of credits that still mean you have difficulty doing some of the core stuff around mathematics and reading.”
Focusing the qualification on core knowledge would likely require a rethinking of how many standards are offered. At the moment, there are thousands available.
“Are there too many? Are they relevant? Do we need to update them?” Stanford asked.
“Do we need to create new ones to reflect what it is that is going to make a young person successful in their apprenticeship or going into work or going into further study?”
One of the briefings suggested some unit standards should possibly not contribute to the NCEA. It mentioned the likes of providing basic life support, understanding a commercial espresso machine and preparing a beverage, and producing a CV.
“This is a useful skill, but its inclusion as credit-bearing within NCEA does little to enhance the standing of NCEA,” officials said.
In some cases where the standard is part of a clear package this may be appropriate, Stanford said.
“But if you’re doing it as a one-off with a whole lot of other things, then I think rightly so, NZQA are concerned about that,” she said.
Stanford has also indicated industry will be more involved in setting the future direction of vocational education in secondary schools.
“They hold all of that knowledge about what are the useful skills and knowledge that are required to go into an apprenticeship or into work. It is crucial it is driven by them.”
There could also be a greater emphasis placed on external examinations under the proposal.
Only 22% of 2024 results were achieved through exams and there were more than 250,000 instances last year of students skipping them as they thought they already had enough credits to pass.
Stanford told the Herald the cost of this was “huge” and parents knew something was wrong when their child didn’t go to an exam.
“Either they’ve got enough credits to pass or they realise they’re not going to pass and there’s no point,” she said.
“That inherent flexibility in the system has led to some of these unintended consequences.”
One of the biggest questions swirling around the changes is whether the Government will abolish NCEA Level 1 entirely.
The coalition Government commissioned the ERO last year to report on Level 1, after 60% of schools said they weren’t ready for changes designed under Labour. Many schools decided to stop offering Level 1, which is voluntary.
The report raised several issues, including a lack of consistency in delivery across schools, the qualification not being a “reliable measure of knowledge and skills” and it not working well for Māori and Pacific students.
Among its recommendations was to consider either dropping it or making further adjustments.
The rationale for abolishing Level 1 was to limit burnout for students and avoid disengaging those wanting to go down vocational educational routes.
“But this leaves students who leave at the end of Year 11 without a formal, recognised qualification.”
Asked in July whether abolishing NCEA Level 1 was being considered, Stanford made a point of noting “doing nothing is not an option”.
“One of ERO’s potential recommendations was dropping Level 1. We are considering everything ERO has put on the table,” she said.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. In 2025, he was a finalist for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.