Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

NCEA rates slump at tiny Ngata Memorial College, but school averages improve

Simon Collins
By Simon Collins
Reporter·NZ Herald·
16 Apr, 2017 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
NCEA statistics show that many schools have lifted their pass rates. Photo / Brett Phibbs

NCEA statistics show that many schools have lifted their pass rates. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Achievement rates in the first year of national exams at tiny Ngata Memorial College in Ruatoria have slumped by 90 per cent in the latest national statistics.

Ngata College, which counts Education Minister Hekia Parata among its former pupils, has only 109 students, so the drop from a 100 per cent pass rate in 2015 to 10 per cent in 2016 is likely to be based on only about 20 students each year.

• READ MORE: Staffroom photos help boost NCEA passes

The Ministry of Education placed the school under a limited statutory manager in March 2015, and the Education Review Office reported three months later that the school had been through "a period of unrest and turmoil".

NCEA

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

However, the annual National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) statistics show that many other schools have lifted their pass rates. Decile 1 Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga in Huntly matched the best top-decile schools with a 100 per cent pass rate for Year 12 students attempting NCEA Level 2.

• Explore: What's beneath rising NCEA pass rates?

The national average pass rate rose slightly from 88.5 per cent of those who attempted Level 2 in Year 12 in 2015 to 89.9 per cent in 2016.

Averages increased most in lower-decile schools, up from 81.5 per cent to 84.2 per cent in deciles 1-3. There were smaller increases from 87.9 per cent to 89 per cent in deciles 4-7 and from 92.8 per cent to 93.6 per cent in deciles 8-10.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

How did your school rate?

The table below shows 'percentage of participating students who achieved this qualification by the end of the academic year of interest'.

The table below shows ' percentage of the student must have achieved the
qualification concerned within the academic year being reported'.

Earlier publication swapped the data in two tables. We apologise for the error and have fixed the story to show both data sets

Decile 10

Kristin School in Albany and John McGlashan College in Dunedin joined four other private schools in the latest data with 100 per cent Level 2 pass rates in Year 12.

Discover more

Kahu

Boys, Maori, Pacific kids gain in NCEA

12 Apr 05:00 PM

King's College was the bottom-ranked decile 10 school, with a pass rate of 84.5 per cent at Level 2 in Year 12. Cambridge International Examinations manager Roger Franklin-Smith said that was because most King's students sat Cambridge exams, not NCEA.

Decile 9

Cambridge exams also distort results in decile 9, with Auckland Grammar School showing the lowest Level 2 pass rate in Year 12 (81.9 per cent). Franklin-Smith said more than 90 per cent of Grammar students sat Cambridge exams.

Decile 8

The biggest change was at the small Rudolf Steiner School in Christchurch, with just 21 students in Year 12 last year, where the Level 2 Year 12 pass rate fell from 94 per cent to 67 per cent.

Decile 7

Catholic schools made up three of the top four decile 7 schools. Bottom-ranked in both Years 11 and 12 was Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery in Christchurch which says learners "are encouraged to be creative, innovative and take risks".

Decile 6

Glenfield College on Auckland's North Shore jumped into the top five decile-7 schools. Its Level 2 pass rate in Year 12 rose from 81 per cent to 95 per cent.

Decile 5

Five decile 5 schools achieved 100 per cent pass rates for their Year 12 students in NCEA level 2. Nathan Durie, who leads Manukura in Palmerston North, said his school gave its 185 mainly Māori students "a sense of themselves, of confidence".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"They haven't learnt that they are dumb," he said. "The hardest part to overcome is the learnt 'dumbness'.'"

Decile 4

Otamatea High School at Maungaturoto registered the biggest gains in decile 4, with pass rates for students attempting Level 2 in Year 12 up from 64 per cent in 2015 to 91 per cent.

Decile 3

Henderson High School achieved the highest decile 3 Level 2 pass rate in Year 12 (98.9 per cent). But nearby Kelston Boys' High School's pass rate slipped from 86 per cent in 2015 to 76.5 per cent.

Decile 2

Coeducational Māngere-based Muslim school Al-Madinah and St Joseph's Māori Girls' College in Napier achieved 100 per cent pass rates in Level 2 at Year 12.

Decile 1

Ngata Memorial College performed much better at Levels 2 and 3 than at Level 1. Its Level 2 pass rate in Year 12 was 92.3 per cent, just missing out on the top five schools for the decile.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Magnitude 4.7 earthquake rattles Bay of Plenty

Rotorua Daily Post

Why a pub owner ditched travel plans to run for re-election

Rotorua Daily Post

Man involved in daylight gang shooting breaches home detention


Sponsored

Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Magnitude 4.7 earthquake rattles Bay of Plenty
Rotorua Daily Post

Magnitude 4.7 earthquake rattles Bay of Plenty

The rumble was registered at a depth of 127km.

05 Aug 05:49 AM
Why a pub owner ditched travel plans to run for re-election
Rotorua Daily Post

Why a pub owner ditched travel plans to run for re-election

05 Aug 04:15 AM
Man involved in daylight gang shooting breaches home detention
Rotorua Daily Post

Man involved in daylight gang shooting breaches home detention

05 Aug 03:30 AM


Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’
Sponsored

Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’

04 Aug 11:37 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP