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.
- Each year, students study a number of courses or subjects.
- In each subject, skills and knowledge are assessed against a number of standards.
- Schools use a range of internal and external assessments to measure how well students meet these standards.
- When a student achieves a standard, they gain a number of credits. One credit is equivalent to 10 hours of study. Students must achieve a certain number of credits to gain an NCEA certificate.
- There are three levels of NCEA certificate, depending on the difficulty of the standards achieved. In general, students work through levels 1 to 3 in years 11 to 13 at school.
Visit the NZQA website for information on "How NCEA works".