OPINION

This week, secondary school students around New Zealand will be able to access their 2025 NCEA results across all three levels.

Having completed my final year of high school last year, I’ve taken this time to reflect on my experience under this system and critique the pattern of behaviour I see it inducing in students.

When I look back at my time as a secondary school student, I think of November as the climax of academic stress for me and most of my peers almost every year.

Between making the most of the final days of the school year, independent exam preparation at home, and battling the occasional bout of self-doubt, NCEA certainly helped teach us resilience.

It was also evident to me, however, that the least motivated students tended to be those in their final year of high school.

Year 13 students have consistently had the lowest NCEA achievement rates of any year group since 2015. In 2024, only 69.4% of Year 13 students in New Zealand attained NCEA Level 3.

In my experience, one reason for this is likely due to the decline in motivation among Year 13 students. I remember one of my classmates telling me, “I’ve got admission to uni, I don’t need to study for my exams”.

Many students have already achieved University Entrance by the time their final Level 3 exams roll around, and may have even been admitted to tertiary institutions.

As a result, they may no longer feel the need to maintain their academic output. This suggests to me the motivation behind their education was never the knowledge acquired, but the credits.

This thought affirmed my suspicion about high school education in general: even when we were in Year 11 and 12, at the peak of our motivation, our incentive to study for exams was never to learn mesmerising, lifelong skills, the likes of which many subjects offer.

Rather, it was to earn credits to refine and polish our university resumés.

When students are rewarded for outcomes rather than understanding, curiosity becomes secondary.

So, this year, before teachers and parents ask about results, perhaps they might think to ask what students enjoyed, what they learned and whether school nurtured their interests.

The answers may reveal more about the value of education than the numbers on an NCEA transcript.

Zeerak Raheem is an aspiring journalist interning with NZME Bay of Plenty.