Te Kura o Tititea Mount Aspiring College (MAC) 2024 senior students have achieved excellent NCEA results, principal Nicola Jacobsen says.

Provisional results indicate MAC students had an 84.1 percent pass rate at NCEA level one, above the national pass rate of 70 percent (as provided by the NZ Qualifications Authority (NZQA)*).

For NCEA level one literacy and numeracy - part of the curriculum for the first time this year - MAC students had a 90.4 percent pass rate, compared with 74.5 percent for numeracy and 76.5 percent for literacy nationally.

At NCEA level two, MAC had a 91.3 percent pass rate, again above the national pass rate of 72.7 percent.

At the third and final NCEA level, MAC’s pass rate was 82.3 percent, again higher than the national pass rate (68.2 percent).

Seventy percent of MAC students received university entrance, compared to 48 percent nationally.

Until last year MAC’s results were compared to schools in a similar decile range (8-10) but NZQA has moved away from the decile system and ‘schools with fewer socio-economic barriers’ is now provided as a comparison.

MAC’s pass rates in 2024 were higher than ‘schools with fewer socio-economic barriers’ in all year levels.

Nicola said students’ 2024 results reflected the college’s strong commitment to academic excellence and followed a trend of strong results in recent years.

The MAC 2024 pass rates were similar to 2023, when 88 percent of MAC students passed level one, 90 percent passed level two, and 89 percent passed level three.

In 2022 MAC’s pass rate was in the late 80s at all three levels.

One of MAC’s goals last year was to focus even more on supporting students to achieve their endorsement goals, Nicola said.

“Our efforts have paid off with an increase from 6.5 percent excellence endorsements in 2023 to 18 percent in 2024,” she said.

She noted that gender-based data showed that male students achieved higher at NCEA Level 2, but lower than female students for NCEA Levels 1 and 3, and university entrance.

Nicola thanked staff and students for all their hard work.

“I am so proud of our students for their effort and resilience in pursuing their studies, and grateful to our staff whose skill and passion provides our students with such exceptional support.”

The NZQA will publish the final (non-provisional) results at the end of February.

*Only 64 percent of year 11 students participate in a full level 1 NCEA programme nationally, and of that group, 70 percent attained the qualification, NZQA says.

PHOTO: MAC