Additional support for NCEA students due to continuing COVID disruption

Additional support for senior secondary students and further changes to NCEA due to the continuing disruption from COVID-19 have been announced.

The following support and NCEA changes apply to students in Auckland in the first instance:

  • Additional places will be available in programmes led by Te Aho o te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) from Term 4, to support students most at risk of not achieving their NCEA goals in 2020
  • In partnership with the Ministry of Education, Te Kura will have extra places in their Summer School this year, for students who need up to 10 additional credits to attain an NCEA or University Entrance award
  • Students working towards an NCEA can gain up to six extra Learning Recognition (LR) Credits at Level 1 and up to four extra LR credits at Levels 2 and 3
  • The credit requirements for Certificate Endorsements have been reduced further by two credits. This means students will be awarded a certificate endorsement if they achieve 44 credits at Merit or Excellence level, instead of 46.

These changes recognise that students in Auckland lost 13 days of classroom-based learning in August following the resurgence of COVID in the community.

The Ministry of Education and NZQA will look to apply similar measures to other regions should COVID-related school closures occur during the remainder of the 2020 school year.

There may be a small number of other circumstances where it is appropriate to apply the LR credits to students whose learning has been significantly impacted. NZQA and the Ministry will determine the criteria for consideration of these.

The measures build on the changes to NCEA and University Entrance for the 2020 school year that were announced earlier this year:



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