NCEA has undergone some changes in 2024 and we just want to update our parent community about these changes.

For NCEA in 2024 and 2025, students will need:

• 60 credits at the Level (or above) of the qualification they are working towards
• Literacy or Te Reo Matatini – 10 credits from Literacy or Te Reo Matatini standards, or from a list of specified standards in a range of subjects
• Numeracy or Pāngarau – 10 credits from Numeracy or Pāngarau standards, or from a list of specified standards in a range of subjects.

Students only need to meet the literacy or te reo matatini and numeracy or pāngarau requirements once, and they do not need to attempt them again for other levels of NCEA.

LITERACY AND NUMERACY CO-REQUISITES

This is the first year of the new NCEA structure and as a result, NZQA is allowing a transitional period for the literacy and numeracy co-requisites. This means that our students can gain their literacy and numeracy through more than one pathway.

If your son is in the senior school and does not have literacy and/or numeracy, they will have the opportunity to re-sit the Common Assessment Activities at least once this year, in either May and/or September. Alternatively, they can gain their literacy and/or numeracy through some specified achievement standards. However, they cannot mix and match, for example, gain 5 credits in the Common Assessment Activity for reading and a further 5 credits from an achievement standard studied in class. They will not be able to combine these results to gain their literacy. 

If your son does not yet have their literacy/numeracy co-requisites, they need to check their NZQA Record of Achievement as many of the achievement standards that were used prior to 2024 have now been retired and are no longer recognised as literacy/numeracy credits.

ENDORSEMENT

NCEA endorsements are used to recognise higher levels of achievement. Certificate endorsement recognises higher overall performance in gaining an NCEA certificate while subject endorsement recognises higher achievement in individual subjects.

Certificate Endorsement

An NCEA certificate can be endorsed to indicate that a student has achieved the certificate with a higher level of performance. Certificates may be endorsed with Excellence or endorsed with Merit. For an NCEA certificate to be endorsed with Excellence, a student must gain 50 credits at Excellence at the level of the certificate or above. Likewise, if a student gains 50 credits at Merit (or Merit and Excellence) at Level 1, their NCEA Level 1 certificate may be endorsed with Merit.

Course Endorsement

The key objective of course endorsement is to motivate students to achieve their potential in one or more courses. Students will gain an endorsement for a course if, in a single school year, they achieve:

• 14 or more credits at Achieved or Merit or Excellence, and at least 3 of these credits from externally assessed standards and 3 credits from internally assessed standards.

*There are exemptions for Levels 2 and 3 Physical Education and Level 3 Visual Arts in domains without externally assessed standards.

For more information about endorsements, please click here.