Nearly 15,000 students failed to miss the literacy and numeracy standards in last year's NCEA results. Figures provided to RNZ by NZQA showed 9% of students in Year 13 and 15% of Year 12s had not achieved the literacy and numeracy co-requisite by the end of 2025. Maxwell said students who failed were not likely to return to school to keep trying to pass the co-requisite. "Those students haven't had the benefit of the minister's investment in structured literacy or numeracy," he said. He said the tests were not well suited to schools in poor communities, neurodiverse students and many boys.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 01, 2026 20:59 UTC