NCEA to be replaced with new qualifications

Monday, 4 August 2025

The new system will replace NCEA’s complex system of credits with scores from 0-100 and a reversion to grade scales such as A through E.

The Government will move to replace the National Certificate of Educational Achievement, NCEA, with new qualifications, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced in Auckland on Monday morning.

The new system - which will go out for feedback - would replace NCEA’s complex system of credits with scores from 0-100 and a reversion to grade scales such as A through E.

It will also introduce new qualifications to sit atop of the new national curriculum for years 9 to 13, which is expected to be introduced in 2026.

“While NCEA was designed to be flexible, for many students that flexibility has encouraged a focus on simply attaining the qualification,” Erica Stanford said.

Example of what a student's record of achievement could ook like under the New Zealand Certificate of Education and New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education. The make-up of English is expanded, demonstrating how it may be made up of 50% external assessments and 50% internal assessment.

“This has come at the cost of developing the critical skills and knowledge they need for clear pathways into future study, training or employment,” she said.

The new proposal would scrap NCEA level 1, and instead required students to take English and Maths in Year 11 (5th form) and “sit a foundation award (test) in numeracy and literacy.”

In Year 12 and Year 13 the Government proposes to replace NCEA with two new qualifications - the New Zealand Certificate of Education and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education.

The Foundational Skills Award is expected to begin in 2028, followed by the new year 12 and 13 qualifications in 2029 and 2030.

Education Minister Erica Stanford is planning major change to the NCEA system.

During the transition period, students will either be assessed through the current NCEA and curriculum or the new qualification and updated curriculum.

The Government says that the changes, which are out for consultation until September 15 with changes confirmed by the end of the year – will make the system more rigorous and easier to understand.

“The evidence shows NCEA is not consistent and can be hard to navigate. It doesn’t always deliver what students and employers need,” Luxon said during the event announcing the changes at law firm Chapman Tripp in Auckland.

Education Minister Erica Stanford told reporters that the Government had “thought very carefully” about how to balance the needs of students.

“You would have heard some people calling for … 100% external exams. But we know that young people, including myself, do better in an external [and] some people do better in internal,” she said.

“Having that good mix of all of them is important, and it's important because there are exam situations in life; you have to go and sit your driver's license, [or] if you're going into the trades, you will set trade qualifications exams.”

The Government’s case for change has been buttressed with what it considers are revealed to be key failings in the system.

According to an Education Review Office evaluation of NCEA Level 1, 60% of teachers do not believe the qualification to be reliable while 71% of employers don’t see it as a reliable measure of knowledge and a staggering 90% don’t see it as a good indicator of work ethic.

Some 32% of schools currently don’t offer all four achievement standards in a subject.

Erica Stanford announces the new qualification system.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority, which runs the exams, said that over 25% of students didn’t even attempt their external assessments, while over 250,000 students skipped exams - often because they had enough credits to pass.

“I think one of the things to note is that we moved to a standards-based assessment qualification, and nobody followed us,” Stanford said after her speech on Monday morning.

“If you look at our international PISA rankings, they have tanked, but if you look at NCEA, it's gone up. Now, those two things cannot be both true,” Stanford said.

During the transition to the new system, students will continue to be assessed under the current NCEA system. NCEA was introduced during the years 2002 and 2004.

“It’s time to ensure that when students reach secondary school, our national qualification reflects the same high standards and ambition we expect throughout their education,” Stanford said.

The Government considered “rolling out the whole curriculum at once right up to year 13”, said Stanford, but it was determined this would have been too much of a burden on the education system.

“So that's why it's carefully staged and implemented, and it works well for students, because there will be no student … working between a new curriculum and a new qualification.”

Stanford said she was hopeful of gaining bipartisan support for the proposed changes, and confirmed some of those conversations had already taken place.

Moments later, however, the Greens released a statement labelling the changes as “a classic case of the Government favouring one-size-fits-all approaches”.

Luxon retorted: “I don't think we take advice from the Green Party on education policy. We have an opportunity here to make sure that New Zealand kids are set up for a tremendous success.”

Labour has since raised its own concerns over the “short window” for consultation.

“Already I’m hearing from schools and parents worried about what this all means for their students and how hasty these proposed changes are,” said the party’s education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime.