A man points to the words “What do students think about NCEA?” written on a whiteboard, with “students” circled. A blue “Now You Know” logo appears in the bottom right corner.
Robbie making a point. (Image: Now You Know, Isaiah Tour)

SocietyJuly 29, 2025

‘So many issues’ but ‘alright, I guess’: What students actually think of NCEA

Video journalist
A man points to the words “What do students think about NCEA?” written on a whiteboard, with “students” circled. A blue “Now You Know” logo appears in the bottom right corner.
Robbie making a point. (Image: Now You Know, Isaiah Tour)

It turns out young people have opinions about things that affect them.

Last week, we shared a Now You Know explainer video on the future of NCEA after prime minister Christopher Luxon announced it was getting a “fundamental overhaul”. The Education Review Office thinks NCEA Level 1 “needs substantial reform” and parents are pressuring schools to ditch the qualification altogether. But what do the people actually doing NCEA think?

They don’t seem to be asked very often, so we took it to the comments section.

Here’s what we learned, in their own words. Comments have been lightly edited for clarity.

Language classes are OK, except when people are using Google Translate to complete their internal assessments.

Moved from the US 10th grade to year 12, so I have a somewhat wider perspective. In short, teaching and learning was minimal, while memorising and copy-pasting were rewarded. The standards for an Achieved are on the ground, while Excellence requires an insane amount of effort. At my school, English was not required past year 10 (still needed reading/writing credits though), and many kids didn’t know how to write, some probably couldn’t read, either. Music and languages in particular, I think, were alright. However, language courses could move a LOT faster (although the internal assessments were pointless as most students could Google Translate their work). It’s great that NCEA gives students choice about their subjects and assessments but that is about the only good thing I can say about it. / Student who finished NCEA in 2023

A key theme was that not a single human soul in the comments understands what is going on with NCEA Level 1. And also, for the love of God, students want us to stop changing their assessment standards mid-year.

I did the new Level 1 NCEA last year and there were so many issues since teachers didn’t know what they were teaching. There are many things we didn’t learn due to there not being enough time to learn everything in the curriculum, so going into Level 2 we have missed out on many things. With the new Level 1 system it was still changing throughout the year, and the way assignments were supposed to be marked was changing whilst doing them. It was not planned out well, and they had not finished the new system halfway through the year and were still altering it, making it even harder to manage. / NCEA Level 2 student

Found last year was alright with credits but NO TEACHER KNEW WHAT THEY WERE TEACHING BECAUSE OF THE SYSTEM CHANGE AND THE LACK OF RESOURCES GIVEN TO THEM! This year was alright, I guess. A lot of overload in a way: one class with three assessments for one thing I’m doing, and I’m finding it hard to get credits but I’ve passed (for now) all my assessments. / NCEA Level 2 student

I think that lots of the new standards are repetitive and aren’t actually clear on what is needed to achieve highly. For example, 1.2 English is basically a repeat of the CAAs [Common Assessment Activities] we have to sit, and it seems to me teachers haven’t actually been able to give their own feedback on the course. It is also apparent there’s a lack of communication from NZQA to teachers. I think there’s also a bit of a disconnect between Level 1 and Level 2 which is going to stitch up my year group. / NCEA Level 1 student

Christopher Luxon, setting the record straight.

A lot of students told us that once you’ve passed NCEA Level 1, you are totally unprepared for Level 2, so good luck with that.

Level 1 was fine, very easy and I only had three exams. But now the jump to Level 2 is huge, and I have 11 exams this year/ NCEA Level 2 student

I HATE level 2 😭✌️ / NCEA Level 2 student

I took L1 [Level 1] last year and my chem teacher said the new Level 1 Labour introduced doesn’t even align with Level 2 chem. She said once you hit Level 2, it’s like restarting. / NCEA Level 2 student

Some students think that NCEA has some redeeming qualities.

It’s going great right now in the first year of NCEA but if there were anything I would have to change, most likely the wording of the standards. Even one of my teachers said that it was “pretty vague” / NCEA Level 1 student

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    As someone currently doing Level 2, I don’t have any major issues with NCEA. My main issue is that it doesn’t necessarily feel like we want to do the assessments (whether because we’re forced to write about specific subjects or are only assessed on subjects the teachers know well). Admittedly, getting students to be passionate about learning isn’t easy. In conclusion, I think that the current use of NCEA is fine; however, in the future, we should find a way to move into a qualification system that is better suited to doing what the students want rather than what the teachers want. / NCEA Level 2 student

    Some people were just happy we showed an interest in what they had to say.

    I personally find it alright, but I know a lot of my friends are struggling. The system definitely needs change, and it’s great to have someone actually care about our opinions for once. / NCEA Level 2 student

    Now You Know is a short-form video explainer series, releasing four times a week on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and proudly supported by NZ On Air.

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