Students from poorest schools struggle with online tests, teachers warn

Teachers say the Qualifications Authority (NZQA) makes it too hard for teens who struggle with online exams to choose pen and paper versions of the high-stakes NCEA literacy and numeracy tests.

They say it is especially unfair for students from poor backgrounds who lack the digital fluency to do well in online assessments.

The literacy and numeracy tests are offered twice a year and the numeracy pass rate for teens from the poorest third of schools was just 38 percent - less than half the success rate for students from the richest third of schools.

Their pass rates for the reading and writing tests were also lower than those of students from schools in richer neighbourhoods.

Porirua College head of maths, Jen Crisp, said multiple factors combined to make the online tests more difficult for students from schools with high equity index numbers - the Education Ministry system used to measure socioeconomic disadvantage.

She said many students did not have computers of their own or at home so they were not fluent in using them.

Those that did have devices were likely to have cheap devices with relatively small screens - the same type schools provided for students who did not have one of their own.

Crisp said that was another source of disadvantage because the smaller screens made it impossible to simultaneously view the data for a question, the question itself, and the possible answers.

She said NZQA also required schools to prove why students should be permitted to sit the paper rather than digital version of the reading, writing and numeracy tests.

Crisp said some schools adopted the practice of providing a paper copy so students doing the digital assessment could see the questions and answers more clearly and do their working on paper.

But that approach no longer worked because NZQA randomised the order of the questions in the online version as a security measure.

"We were told maybe a week before the September CAA [Common Assessment Activity] that the questions on the paper would be in a different order to the questions online. So that's just adding another barrier to us doing that for no particular reason," she said.

Crisp said it was clear many students from high equity index (EQI) schools did better in pen and paper exams.

"I've experimented with my own classes about giving them tests on paper and giving them tests on the Chromebooks and I've found that the vast majority of them do better on paper," she said.

"I find that they take their time more and they write down all the working, which as a maths teacher is something I go on about absolutely every day."

She said NZQA's decisions compounded the hurdles many students at high-EQI schools faced.

"Students that have the most disadvantages are just being disadvantaged again and in a way that's really quite obvious and in a way that I've pointed out to them quite a few times and people from schools like ours have pointed out to them quite a few times," Crisp said.

"It's just widening that digital divide which we know exists and we know has an impact on our people and their education."

Crisp said making it easier for students to sit hard-copy tests would lift achievement rates.

"Paper would make a massive difference. It's not going to get us quite to where the low-equity schools are because we still have a gap in resourcing but I think giving these students every chance that they have to succeed is worth it," she said.

Other teachers RNZ spoke with also cited the problem with small screens and lack of familiarity with computers.

Tangaroa College deputy principal Imeleta Faumuina said if students did not have a computer at home they could not practice for online tests and were unlikely to be digitally fluent.

"A lot of our kids have passed using the online. They just need more practice using a device," she said.

"But for the kids to be able to access and practice with the CAAs they've got to have a computer at home, which a lot of them don't have. That disadvantages the kids."

Faumuina said students who were not familiar with a device struggled with basic functions, such as knowing which button to push for a decimal point.

She said her school had to prepare its students as well as possible for the modern world and it had 200 devices for students to use in exams.

"It's the 21st century and we have to have go with what's commonly used," she said.

Pukekohe High School deputy principal Martin Bennett said digital exams were an easy way to assess students, but there were issues.

"Firstly schools are just not built for digital exams. Our school is over 100 years old. When we do our exams whether it's the gym or the hall there's literally not enough power points. In the gym we've got two power points," he said.

"We've got all these students' devices, they've got to last for between an hour, three hours. Will they last? They just don't."

Bennett said wifi was another problem and his school was spending about $50,000 to add wifi to the gym just for external exams.

He said his school enrolled teens from all backgrounds and some did not have their own devices which put them on the back-foot with digital exams.

"When they come to do the exams it's really problematic because they just haven't used the devices," he said.

"It adds to that disparity of those that have devices and those that don't."

Bennett said NZQA had a "digital-first" approach to assessment but it was ahead of the reality for many schools and many students, and it was difficult to opt out of digital assessment for the literacy and numeracy tests.

"It's not that easy. It's literally 'do them digitally'. Unless they really have special assessment conditions they're doing them digitally," he said.

"Until the equity situation is sorted whereby every student has a device and every student has a device they can use at home so they can practice and be confident using a device, then we really need to be able to do them on paper."

NZQA deputy chief executive, assessment, Jann Marshal said digital assessment offered benefits for all students.

"Digital assessment can help make assessment more accessible and equitable for students. As well as reflecting the way students increasingly learn and work in the classroom, digital assessment can provide access to tools such as text-to-speech and on-screen editing that reduce barriers for some learners," she said.

She said high-EQI schools were just as engaged in digital assessment as those in other EQI bands.

"Our Insights paper on Digital assessment for NCEA, published in May 2025, found that 78 percent of schools facing higher socio-economic barriers had either high engagement with digital assessment or digital assessment fully embedded in their programme, compared to 75 percent of schools with fewer socio-economic barriers," she said.

Marshall said NZQA did not require any form of exemption for students to complete an assessment on paper.

"NZQA provides PDF files which schools are able to download and print before the assessment event for students who would do better completing the exam on paper," she said.