Andy England: Darfield High School Principal on NCEA Level 1 achievement falling, secondary teachers strike

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Aug 13, 2025 · 4m · transcript

NCEA Level 1 achievement's dropped to its lowest level in a decade, while all qualifications saw improvement.

In 2024, achievement in Levels 2, 3, and University Entrance went up for the first time since 2020.

Student's completing Level 1 continued to drop, and Māori also fell further behind.

Darfield High School Principal Andy England told Ryan Bridge there've been problems with the qualification since its introduction.

He says there's been a lot of tinkering for teachers to get their heads round and some of the introduction texts were awful.

And secondary teachers will soon swapping their…