NCEA achievement rates at Garin College had marginally decreased in all levels last year, but its principal says it parallelled with the national drop in achievement.
Principal John Maguire says while he was pleased with how his students performed despite the teacher strikes in early 2023 and the previous Covid disruptions, there was a slight decrease in some areas.
“University Entrance for our students, 61.7 per cent achieved their UE, while that is slightly down on previous years, we are happy with that result and it is well above the national equity index,” he says.
“Endorsement rates at Level 2 have increased as well as Level 3 merit endorsements.
“At Level 1 we’re seeing a drop compared to last year, but it’s comparable to the two previous years, so we’re feeling positive about the results, but we feel a bit of improvement in that area is needed.”
John says the college would be working through the new NCEA achievement standards in 2024.
“The move to the available four standards which have equal number of credits, so as a school we’ve agreed for students to be assessed against three, so a total of 15 credits,” he says.
“I think that shift will bring a good focus on learning and students’ achievement, and I hope will see continue at the levels we’re at or improve.”
John also says the college will also continue to bolster achievement rates in literacy and numeracy for Year 10 students. From this year, a 20-credit literacy and numeracy co-requisite is required for an NCEA qualification.
“We do the curricular assessments in Year 10 for the Level 1 NCEA co-requisite and our pass rate for Year 10 was 73 per cent in the common assessment task last year,” he says.
“So, we’re really pleased with our student progress in the literacy and numeracy, so again in 2024, we’ll continue to focus on preparing our junior students for the co-requisite assessments in Year 10.”
