School leavers with higher level qualifications

Ethnic differences

In terms of ethnic groups, Asian students are most likely to leave school with NCEA Level 2 or above.  In 2007, 84.2 percent of Asian school leavers left school with less than NCEA Level 2 or above, compared to 70.6 percent of Europeans, 56.0 percent of Pacific students, and 43.9 percent of Māori students.  

Between 2006 and 2007, there was an increase for all ethnic groups in the proportion of students leaving school with a qualification at NCEA Level 2 or above.  The increase was greater for Māori and Pacific students than for European and Asian students.

Proportion of school leavers with Higher School Certificate or above, 1986-2002 and with NCEA Level 2 or above, by ethnic group, 1993-2007
Year Māori
%		 Pasifika
%		 Asian
%		 Other
%		 European
%
1993 16.3 23.5 61.7 45.3 42.6
1994 16.0 25.8 62.9 42.2 42.3
1995 14.9 23.7 58.9 35.0 42.5
1996 15.7 25.6 64.1 40.6 44.6
1997 17.9 26.6 66.1 46.4 47.8
1998 18.8 25.8 69.9 49.5 48.0
1999 18.7 24.2 67.2 42.0 44.0
2000 16.5 24.9 64.2 43.0 41.5
2001 16.3 25.2 65.6 37.7 41.4
2002 20.0 30.2 67.6 48.2 46.2
2003 28.8 42.3 75.1 54.2 57.4
2005 32.7 45.3 79.9 55.8 63.0
2006 36.7 49.6 82.2 63.5 65.4
2007 43.9 56.0 84.2 67.0 70.6

Source: Ministry of Education. A direct comparison cannot be made between rates up to and including 2002 with rates for 2003 on, due to the change in qualification structure.  Because of methodological changes, 2004 is not comparable with other years and has been omitted.

Note

We encourage you to be cautious about drawing conclusions from comparisons between ethnic groups.  Apparent differences (in unadjusted data) between ethnic groups can often be explained by factors other than ethnicity per se, such as the different age, sex, geographical and socioeconomic distributions of different ethnic populations.  In addition, datasets vary in the way that they collect and record ethnicity data.