Anxious wait over for Bay’s NCEA students
While the anxious wait for NCEA results may be over for students, it will be a few days yet before schools know exactly how well they have done academically.
For many schools, yesterday’s release of NCEA results to students signals the start of hours of manually pulling data from individual students together, while other schools opt to wait for their report by NZQA.
Yesterday, about 140,000 secondary students from around the country were granted access to their 2019 examination results, flocking to the NZQA website.
In 2019, 5350 students from 25 different schools in the Hawke’s Bay region were entered for NCEA external assessments. Of this total, 710 students were entered for digital examinations.
Deputy Chief Executive Assessment, Kristine Kilkelly, said the results day was successful, with no issues reported. By 4.30pm yesterday, 62,000 students had logged in.
“Releasing NCEA results is carefully managed so students can quickly and easily access their results. NZQA’s website and IT systems have performed well to provide students with access to their personal records,” Kilkelly said.
After receiving their marked papers, students have until February 19 to apply for a review or reconsideration.
Havelock North High School principal Greg Fenton said it was “certainly a nervous time for us, like them [students] as we await the outcome of the exam results”.
He said he expected to have a “perspective on how students have done, and how they compare to other schools and other decile ratings” in the next couple of days.
However, having calculated her school’s performance, Sacred Heart College principal, Maria Neville-Foster said they were the best they have been in the last five years, to her “absolute delight”.
Of the students who sat exams at the school, Neville-Foster calculated a 100 per cent pass rate at level one, 98 per cent pass rate at level two, and 89 per cent pass rate at level three.
However, the provisional results will be slightly different to NZQA’s “roll based” data which includes all students enrolled at the school, and typically comes out “three or four days” later.
A final calculation is completed by early-to-mid February.
She says the results reflect the hard work her students put into their studies throughout the year but also their teachers.
“I am really pleased for them they have done it and their parents I am sure are proud of them,” she said.
Lindisfarne College assistant rector, senior school, Ross Barry said the initial look is “really positive”.
Barry was able to access the results on Monday night but is waiting for it to be processed, and to analyse the data fully. While he acknowledged some students may be a “bit sad, most will be pleased”.
William Colenso College principal and Hawke's Bay Secondary Principals' Association chairman Daniel Murfitt is currently out of town for work but said his school was working through the data available and speaking with students to ensure it is correct – particularly for those whose university admission is dependent on their results.
“There are so many students with individualised programmes and individual pathways that this is an important time to celebrate their individual success as opposed to the schools in general.”
