NCEA numeracy test continues to trip up students from poor backgrounds

Final pass rates show the crucial NCEA numeracy test continues to trip up thousands of students from poor backgrounds.

The test offered in May and September was attempted by 16,967 students from the third of schools facing higher socio-economic barriers and only 38 percent passed.

That was well below the 81 percent pass rate for the 22,080 students from the third of schools facing the fewest socio-economic barriers who sat the test.

The numeracy pass rate for the 45,267 students from the third facing moderate barriers who sat the assessment was 62 percent.

Students must pass the test, and the reading and writing tests, before they can receive an NCEA certificate at any level of the qualification.

The national pass rates after two testing rounds were 72 percent for reading, 68 percent for writing, and 63 percent for numeracy.

The numeracy test had the most candidates, 89,823, with 61,846 in May and 51,434 in September meaning nearly half were attempting it a second time.

The figures did not show how many students did not attempt the tests or how many might have achieved the literacy and numeracy requirement through alternative standards available until the end of next year.

The pass rates were near identical to last year when the number of school leavers with no formal qualification was 19 percent - one of the highest of the NCEA era.

The figures indicated several thousand students in their final year of schooling had failed one or more of the tests.

Just 44 percent of the 2267 Year 13s and 6513 Year 12s who sat the numeracy test passed.

Similarly 47 percent of the 2357 Year 13s and 6116 Year 12s who sat the writing test were successful.

In reading 5543 Year 12s and 2193 Year 13s sat the tests with 52 percent passing.