Race gap exposed in NCEA results

This year's high school exam results document for the first time the gulf in achievement between ethnicities.

Nationally, 79.2 per cent of participating New Zealand European Year 11 students achieved NCEA Level 1, while 52.8 per cent of Maori and 47.8 per cent of Pacific Island students passed.

In Auckland, where the ethnic population is more diverse, the gap between the achievement of European students and Maori and Pacific students was even more pronounced.

Dr Elizabeth McKinley, associate professor at Auckland University's faculty of education and director of the Starpath Project, a university research group committed to helping students from low-decile schools make their way to university, said she had been looking for this level of information for a long time.

The statistics do not come as a surprise - the "long brown tail" of New Zealand education achievement has been well-documented - but Dr McKinley said they highlighted a need for a more targeted approach to boosting Maori and Pacific academic achievement.

But she warned that the NZQA data was not as transparent as it seemed.

It did not indicate that one of the reasons Maori and Pacific Island students were picking up fewer NCEA passes than European or Asian students was because they were taking fewer approved subjects or academic versions of subjects.

And the highest concentration of Maori and Pacific Island students were at low-decile schools which had fewer resources and offered a narrower range of subjects than high-decile and high-achieving schools.

Dr McKinley said the media often ran stories heralding a rise in Maori and Pacific achievement but NZQA's statistics showed these ethnicities were still struggling with the education system.

"There are always going to be some Pacific kids and some European kids that struggle with subjects, but there's no reason why there should be so many less Pacific Island kids [achieving NCEA]," she said.

Kate Gainsford, president of the Post Primary Teachers' Association, said equity in education was incredibly important.

"I think schools are generally mobilised to achieve that but it is a problem that exists outside of schools and so schools require that assistance from outside the school."

Nationally and across ethnicities, NCEA pass rates had increased year on year, but Ms Gainsford said that was to be expected when the process stabilised following the introduction of the new system 2003in 2004.

PASS RATES
(NCEA Level 1 at Year 11):
* European 79.2 per cent
* Maori 52.8 per cent
* Pacific Island 47.8 per cent