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Guardian ASHBURTON
NOVEMBER, 2013
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NCEA results ‘naturally skewed’ BY MYLES HUME
MYLES.H@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Mid Canterbury school leavers are lagging almost 10 per cent behind their national counterparts when it comes to gaining university entry qualifications. However, the number of Mid Canterbury pupils attaining high-level school qualifications are on the rise, despite many teenagers leaving school early to take up apprenticeship opportunities. Ministry of Education figures show of the 361 pupils in the Ashburton District who left school last year, 85.6 per cent had NCEA Level 1 (compared with the national rate of 85 per cent), 71.5 per cent left with NCEA Level 2 (74.3 per cent) while 40.2 per cent achieved university entrance (49 per cent). Although NCEA Level 2 and university entrance qualifications were below the national rate, both had risen 3.1 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively from 2011. Ashburton College principal Grant McMillan put the rate down to a high number of pupils leaving school to take up apprenticeships during the
district’s economic boom and believed the figures were “naturally skewed” because some pupils took more than a school year to complete qualifications. He said many pupils who left school to take on apprenticeships were sometimes not counted in the school leaver statistics, despite earning qualifications on the job. He had provided feedback to the Ministry of Education about ways schools could “build those people” into the statistics to “give a more realistic view” of districts like Mid Canterbury. Mr McMillan was also keen to point out some pupils needed more than the regular four terms to complete a qualification, meaning some pupils carried courses through to the next schooling year. “The major problem with these statistics are they are time-bound to one year so those that are carrying through into the next year are recorded as a failure ... so there’s a bit of a natural skewing.” Mr McMillan believed the ministry figures were more likely to be used by the community rather than schools, and would “embed the Government goals into community expectations”.
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Up, up and away ... Ashburton Intermediate pupils ran, jumped and threw their way towards contention for the local county schools’ athletic sports to be held on Friday. Ashlee Strawbridge (above) was among hundreds of intermediate pupils vying for acceptance to the Ashburton County Athletic Sports during her school’s athletics day at McLean Park yesterday.
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