The Government has officially confirmed that it will proceed with a significant overhaul of New Zealand’s secondary school qualification system, including the replacement of the current NCEA programme.
After consultation on the proposal last year, Cabinet has formally agreed to a set of changes which include removing NCEA Level 1 and introducing a new Foundational Award for Year 11 students, as well as replacing Level 2 and 3 with new qualifications.
More than 10,000 people are said to have participated in the consultation, with Education Minister Erica Stanford saying there was “strong support for structural change”, particularly regarding Level 1. Some principals have, however, previously criticised the change process.
“We are building a new system that is clearer, more consistent across schools and internationally comparable so that when a student earns a qualification it genuinely signals they are ready for the next step and reflects what they know and can do,” the minister said.
Stanford is expected to formally announce Cabinet’s decision at a press conference later today and will highlight the next steps, which will include engaging with the sector on the specific designs of assessments.
One piece of feedback raised during the consultation period was around making it compulsory for schools to require Year 11 students to take science, something Stanford said she will “be seeking further advice on”.
English and mathematics were already planned to be compulsory.
The Government revealed its proposals for the country’s main secondary school qualification last August, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying a new system would help ensure New Zealand’s young people had the skills to succeed in a modern global economy.
It followed stories from the Herald which revealed ministerial briefings warning NCEA faced a credibility crisis over its “overused” flexibility, a lack of coherent vocational education pathways, and an over-reliance on internal assessments.
The consultation ran into September and was expected to be followed by Cabinet consideration in November. However, that was delayed until early this year as officials were still analysing the feedback.
Cabinet has now met and agreed to an initial package of changes to the system. This provides the outline of the new structure, with further work to be undertaken on specific achievement requirements, grading, and the balance of internal versus external assessments.
Among the changes confirmed:
The Year 11 Foundational Award will be introduced in 2028, the Year 12 qualification in 2029, and the Year 13 qualification in 2030.
This means the first students to participate will be the current Year 9 cohort. The staggered implementation also ensures no students will have to switch between the current NCEA system and the new qualification.
Stanford said Cabinet’s decision was the “first of two major milestones” in what she called a “carefully sequenced set of decisions” leading to a new qualification system.
“We are ambitious for young New Zealanders and believe they deserve a qualification system built on high expectations and credibility,” the minister said.
She said the shortfalls of NCEA were longstanding and well-known.
“NCEA has become increasingly fragmented, difficult to understand, and too easy to game. Too often, students have been able to gain piecemeal credits without developing the knowledge and skills they need to succeed beyond school.”
The new system was expected to be “clearer, more consistent across schools and internationally comparable”.
A new curriculum for Years 11 to 13 will be consulted on later this year and will be aligned with the new qualifications.
“The changes are being developed alongside the Government’s new knowledge-rich national senior secondary curriculum so that what students learn and how they are assessed are properly aligned,” said the minister.
The Government has decided to make decisions in two tranches, with the tranche confirmed today relating to the design of the new qualification system.
Stanford said splitting up the decisions would allow “time to engage with the sector and undertake detailed design work with the new Technical Advisory Group, on the more technical aspects of the proposal”.
The second phase of work will include achievement requirements for Year 12 and 13, information about grading, the balance of internal versus and external assessments, weighting of exams, moderation, comparability, and complex decisions.
Under last year’s proposal, students would have to take five subjects and pass at least four. It was proposed that the assessments would have a clear “out of 100” marking system alongside A to E letter grades.
Stanford said students, typically at Year 11, will be “able to sit the Foundational Award when they demonstrate the required literacy and numeracy capability”.
“The Foundational Award is designed as a stepping stone into senior secondary qualifications. The basics matter. This award is a strong indicator of readiness to engage with the Year 12 and Year 13 qualification and basic competency in reading, writing and maths.”
Year 11 students will be required to study English and mathematics. Stanford also revealed today that there were suggestions during the consultation process for schools to require Year 11 students to study science, and she was seeking advice on this.
Stanford said she would continue to engage with the sector and expected to take advice on technical design decisions before the Budget.
She will host a national roadshow in June to help prepare secondary school teachers for both the new qualification structure and curriculum.
Labour’s education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen questioned where the detail was, saying “schools wanted clarity - all they got was a press release”.
“Schools are exhausted with all the cheap and imported slogans from the Minister,” she said.
“They’ve warned her that a one-size-fits-all approach will leave many students behind – particularly Māori and Pasifika, but Erica Stanford knows better according to her."
The Green Party’s education spokesperson, Lawrence Xu-Nan, said the changes risked creating a “one-size-fits-all model”.
“Education must be shaped by communities to meet everyone’s needs if we want our mokupuna to thrive,” said Xu-Nan.
“What the Minister announced today has confirmed what people have been concerned with all along. It is ill-conceived, haphazard, and nothing short of a vanity project. If this proceeds, we will see more students falling through the gaps and being left behind.”
Chris Abercrombie, president of the PPTA, responded by calling Stanford’s update a “non-announcement”.
“There was nothing in the Minister’s announcement today that we really didn’t know already – we were expecting an analysis of the consultation process on the changes, and what the new system would look like.
“Instead, we got a repetition of an announcement that was made seven months ago. Seven months is an extremely long time when you’re planning to introduce once-in-a-generation changes to secondary school qualifications and assessment the year after next.”
He also said the timeline for the changes was “wildly optimistic”
“We have already seen the Ministry of Education struggle to deliver against timelines for the new English and Maths materials for secondary schools,” said Abercrombie.
“These unrealistic timelines will create massive uncertainty and anxiety for students and whānau, which is the last thing we need in a transition process. It is completely unacceptable.”
The Government’s proposals received a strong initial reaction from school principals, with a coalition of 64 – many from some of New Zealand’s wealthiest schools – backing the plans, while about 90 others called for an “immediate halt” so they could be better planned. Some in the sector believed there was value in NCEA’s flexibility.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.