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The share of students leaving��school��before they turn 17 is the highest in a decade, as��education standards continue to fall across the board.��

That’s according to the latest school leaver data,��published today, which also shows the gaps between rich and��poor��and������ǰ�����and non-����ǰ��� continuing to widen.��

Barely half (51.8%) of all students in 2023 left��school��with NCEA 3 or above, the lowest rate since 2014, and a continuation of the��years-long declining trend. For ����ǰ���, the proportion was only 33.2%, and while Pacific students bucked the trend by improving on 2022 results, the proportion leaving school with NCEA 3 or above was still well below half (44.7%).��

A major contributor to those results was the fact that more than a fifth of all students (21.4%, and 36.4% for ����ǰ���) left school in 2023 before they turned 17, the highest proportion since 2013.��

“In 2023, 14,101 school leavers left school before the age of 17, an increase of 5.7% from 2022,” an Education Counts report said.��

The results will be further fuel for the Government to justify its policies aimed at turning around education achievement levels, including plans to��fast-track changes to the maths curriculum.��

The��Ministry of Education��attributed the lower retention rate to the “increased cost of living, the strong labour market, disruption to learning due to Covid-19, and decreased attendance”.��

Only 6.7% of these students left school due to moving overseas, while for 14.9%, it was because they were “continuously absent” – the highest such proportion in a decade.��

Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor (as measured by the Equity Index) is widening: there’s an almost 40% achievement gap for NCEA 3 or above between school leavers from the richest and poorest backgrounds, with the biggest fall in achievement among the least advantaged students.��

“In 2023, 73.2% of school leavers from schools with fewer barriers had attained NCEA Level 3 or above. This was higher than the percentage of school leavers from schools with moderate (49.0%) and more (35.4%) barriers to achievement,” the��Education Counts report said.��

The biggest decreases in school leavers’ achievement were at NCEA 1 and 2.��

In 2023, 83.8% of school leavers (71.7% for ����ǰ���) achieved NCEA Level 1 or above, a drop by 1.6 percentage points from 2022 and down by 6.2% since 2017.��

Achievement among ����ǰ��� school leavers has fallen by almost 10% since 2018.��

“Barriers to attainment appear to have grown for ����ǰ��� school leavers compared to total school leavers. The gap between attainment of NCEA level 1 or above for ����ǰ��� and total school leavers has grown from 8.9 percentage points in 2019 to 12.1 in 2023,” the report said.��

The drops among Pacific (by 0.5 percentage points) and European/Pākehā (1.4 percentage points) school leavers were much less sharp, and while it was higher for Asian students (2.7 percentage points) the achievement level was also much higher (92.1% leaving school with at least NCEA Level 1).��

For NCEA Level 2 and above, the proportion leaving school was less than three-quarters (74.4%) of school leavers in 2023 – the lowest in a decade and a 1.3 percentage point fall compared with 2022.��

“Signs of continued inequity are apparent. On average school leavers who identify as ����ǰ���, Pacific, or male, or who are from schools with more barriers to achievement are more likely to leave school without NCEA Level 2 or above,” the report said.��

School-leaver data is considered the most comprehensive measure of secondary student attainment because it captures all students.��

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said there is an��education crisis��in New Zealand and he is determined to turn it around with a series of policies across teacher training, the curriculum, standardised testing and tackling truancy, among others.��

Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the��Herald��in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.��