Understanding NCEA

NCEA

The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is the main national qualification for secondary school students in New Zealand. NCEA is recognised by employers and used for selection by universities and polytechnics, both in New Zealand and overseas.

How NCEA works

• Each year, ākonga study courses or subjects.
• Achievement in each course/subject may be assessed through several standards, with each standard covering a specific set of skills and knowledge. For example, a Science standard is: Investigate implications of electricity and magnetism for everyday life.
• Schools use internal and external assessments to measure how well ākonga meet these standards.
• When ākonga achieve a standard, they gain credits. Ākonga must achieve a certain number of credits to gain NCEA.
• There are 3 levels of NCEA. In general, students work through levels 1 to 3 in years 11 to 13 at school.
• Achievement at each level or in a course is recognised with Achieved, Merit and Excellence Endorsements.
• Students are recognised for high achievement at each level by gaining NCEA with Achieved, Merit or NCEA with Excellence. More information about course endorsements can be found here.

If you'd prefer, you can watch a short animation on how NCEA works.

Important Changes for 2024 and NCEA

In 2024:

• The new NCEA Level 1 achievement standards will be fully implemented.
• Current Level 1 achievement standards expire at the end of 2023
• NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3 will each become 60-credit qualifications
• The te reo matatini, pāngarau, literacy, and numeracy co-requisite, which sits outside of the new NCEA qualification, will become mandatory
• Learners will only be awarded an NCEA qualification once they have met the 20-credit co-requisite
• Learners need to complete the co-requisite once only.

Changes and new requirements for all three levels of NCEA come into effect from 2024. These changes have been signalled since 2020 when the seven NCEA changes were announced.

• From January 2024, NCEA Level 2 and Level 3 will each require 60 credits at certificate level or above.
• NCEA Level 1 currently requires learners to achieve at least 80 credits at Level 1 or above. This includes the literacy and numeracy requirements of the qualification.
• NCEA Levels 2 and 3 also currently require 80 credits, but learners can ‘carry over’ 20 credits from the level below. This provision will cease, so learners will not be able to carry over 20 credits from Level 1 through to Level 2, or 20 credits from Level 2 to Level 3.
• The 60-credit NCEA Levels 1, 2, and 3 will not include the 20-credit te reo matatini, pāngarau, literacy, and numeracy co-requisite, which sits alongside these qualifications.
• From 2024, to be awarded any level of NCEA, learners will need to achieve the new 20-credit co-requisite
• Credits used towards the co-requisite cannot be used towards the 60-credit NCEA. Essentially, the number of credits required to gain each level of NCEA remains the same, with the literacy and numeracy requirements separated out into a ‘one-off’ co-requisite.
• During 2024 and 2025, learners will be able to meet the 20-credit co-requisite through achieving either the new standards in Literacy-Writing, Literacy-Reading, Numeracy, Te Reo Matatini, and Pāngarau or gaining 20 credits from a small list of literacy and numeracy-rich standards.

What stays the same?

• Unit Standards as well as Achievement Standards can be used towards the 60-credit NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 qualifications.
• Any credits learners already have can be used towards the new NCEA qualifications.
• There is no time limit on completing an NCEA. If learners gain part of their qualification, they can return to study at any time.
• Course and certificate endorsement requirements also remain the same. Students will be required to gain 14 or more credits in a course at Achieved, Merit or Excellence (including at least 3 external and 3 internal credits) to gain a course endorsement. Certificate endorsement continues to require 50 or more credits at Merit or Excellence level.

For more information, please visit https://ncea.education.govt.nz/understanding-how-ncea-requirements-are-changing

More NZQA Publications

• Understanding NCEA (English)
• Understanding NCEA (Te Reo Māori)
• NCEA - A Fact Sheet