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National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)

 

The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is the main national qualification for secondary school students in New Zealand.

 

NCEA is recognised by employers, and used for selection by universities and polytechnics, both in New Zealand and overseas.

CREDITS IN NCEA

Students need a total of 80 credits for each NCEA qualification: 

 

• NCEA Level 1 – 80 credits at any Level, including credits in literacy and numeracy.

 

• NCEA Level 2 – 60 credits at Level 2 or above, plus 20 credits from Level 1 or above. Level 2 literacy credits are required. 


•NCEA Level 3  – 60 credits at Level 3 or above, plus 20 credits from Level 2 or above.

  • Schools use a range of internal and external assessments to measure how well students meet these standards.
  • When a student achieves a standard, they gain a number of credits depending on the difficulty of the standards achieved. Students must achieve a certain number of credits to gain an NCEA certificate.
  • There are three levels of NCEA certificate. In general, students work through Levels 1 to 3 in Years 11 to 13 at school.

  • Students are recognised for high achievement at each level by gaining NCEA with Merit or NCEA with Excellence.

National Standards
 

National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics provide signposts that give teachers, children, parents, families and whānau a clear idea of where children are at in their learning and what they have to do next.



Schools with children in Years 1-8 will be using National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. 
 

 

 

How children's progress and achievement is assessed

 

To work out where each child is at in reading, writing and maths in relation to the National Standards, teachers will make an overall teacher judgement using a range of assessments, including:

 

  • what they have seen in the classroom

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  • talking about learning with children

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  • children’s assessment of their own and each others’ work

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  • results from formal tests.

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Teachers will use the overall teacher judgment to work out each child’s next learning steps and to set goals for their learning. School reporting will clearly show your child’s progress and achievement, what the teacher and school will do to help your child reach their goals, and what you can do at home to support your child’s learning.

 

 

 

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