Education Indicators by Socio-Economic Status
Last week I posted re the need to significantly improve education for Maori young people: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2025/02/more_detail_on_the_need_for_huge_improvement_in_our_education_for_maori_children_and_youth.html
Citing one problem situation does not exclude others so I promised to do a brief look at some education stats from the perspecitive of Socio-Economics.
Up until a couple of years ago schools have a decile ranking (10 high, 1 low) based primary on the average income in an address area. Schools now receive a Equity Index Number based on 37 socio-economic “risk-factors”. It is inverse to decile numbers so a high EQI means more students with significant risk factors – a low EQI means few. Each school gets an individual number and an amount of marginal funding is dependant on that.
So …
Attendance:
In Term 3 of 2024 (we have to wait until March 20 before we know about T4 2024)
Overall full attendance was 51.3%
In schools where there was fewest at risk-students full-attendance was 61.2%
In schools with the most at risk students full-attendance was 35%.
Achievement:
Using University Entrance for Leavers as the highest common indicator of achievement (and one that includes Cambridge Schools) and breaking the EQIs into 10ths to match the old deciles.
In 2023
The schools in the lowest EQI 10th had 70% of their students leave with UE (on average)
The schools in the second lowest EQI = 67%
The schools in the third lowest EQI = 52%
The schools in the 3rd highest EQI 10th had 20% of their students leave with UE (on average)
The schools in the 2nd highest EQI = 18%
The schools in the 3rd highest EQI = 8%
Both the attendance and achievement stats make a complete mockery of the Ministry of Education’s purpose statement:
“We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent outcomes.”
For further reading this briallint article by Kirsty Johnson in 2018 is insightful.https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/want-to-be-a-doctor-lawyer-or-engineer-dont-grow-up-poor/YLNUCK7L3KLN5EYJBFAEPJHCE4/
e.g. “One university took only a single decile one entrant – out of more than 2000 – into its engineering programme in five years. At the same time, it took more than 500 decile 10 students.”
And this recent article on the intake at Otago Medical School.
e.g. “Students from schools in the lowest socio-economic quintile were nearly absent from health professional programme admissions, comprising approximately 2% of students entering those programmes across time,” wrote the authors in the study, released in November.”
Alwyn Poole
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