What is NCEA?
NCEA stands for National Certificate of Educational Achievement. NCEAs are the most common qualifications you will be working towards in years 11 to 13.
Why should I get an NCEA?
NCEAs and other national certificates are recognised by employers and used for selection by universities and polytechnics. NCEAs are also accepted by most employers and universities overseas.
Independent research has shown that if you do well in NCEAs, you are likely to do well in your first year at university.
How do I get an NCEA?
NCEAs are gained by building up credits. Credits are awarded for each standard you achieve in the course or programme you are studying.
- Standards are skills or knowledge that you are expected to achieve or know in a subject. For example, a Mathematics standard could be: Use decimals and percentages to solve problems.
- Assessments measure how well you meet these standards. Assessments can be internal (like a test or assignment) or external (like an end-of-year exam).
- When you achieve a standard, you also achieve a number of credits for that standard. The Mathematics standard above is worth 2 credits.
- When you achieve a certain number of credits, you gain an NCEA. There are three different levels of NCEA you can get, depending on the difficulty of the standards you achieve.
COST OF QUALIFICATION
Who Needs To Pay?
All year 11, 12 and 13/14 students are doing Unit Standards and/or Achievement Standards that count towards their NCEA qualification. Selected year 10 students and some year 9 students are also doing NCEA in some subjects. All of these students must pay their NZQA fee this year or they will not get any results.
Note: Some year 10 students will only be doing internally assessed standards for social studies. These internally assessed results can be held by the School and reported to NZQA in the following year – to save families from having to pay the $75 NCEA fee at year 10.
What Does It Cost?
The NZQA fee is $75.00 per student per year. That covers all achievement standards and unit standards that a student is studying. (It also pays for up to 3 Scholarship papers for year 13 students. Additional Scholarship papers cost $75 per subject).
What if I Can’t Afford to Pay?
You may be eligible for financial assistance. If you are on a Work and Income benefit, (or a Study Link benefit) you will only have to pay $20. The same applies if your family income is below the amount for a Community Services Card.
YOU MUST FILL OUT A FORM TO GET THE REDUCED FEE. You can get the form from the School office (or you can get one off the NZQA website).
The completed form must be returned to the School – WITH THE $20 PAYMENT. Final date is August 31.
More than One Child doing NCEA This Year?
If you have more than one child doing NCEA this year, the following charges apply:
- If you qualify for financial assistance (see above) then you only have to pay $30 in total.
- If you do not qualify for financial assistance, you still have to pay the $75 per student – up to a maximum of $200 per family (and a maximum of $100 per student).
International Students:
- For NCEA: $375 total per student.
- For Scholarship: $100 per subject.
When is the Fee Due?
The fee must be paid, to the School, by the 31st of August this year.
Make cheques payable to Gisborne Boys’ High School. We then pay NZQA.
What Happens if I don’t Pay?
We still send the results to NZQA, but they will not award them to the student this year.
Late Payment:
If you pay late, you must pay the full fee (no financial assistance) PLUS a $50 late fee.
Special Assessment Conditions:
If your son/ward requires special exam conditions (e.g a reader-writer) for a disability you must contact Mr Ray or Mr Griffiths at the beginning of the year. To be eligible for special assistance in the NZQA exams, a student must have carried out assessments during the year under the same conditions – e.g. in tests and exams.
If you require further information about NCEA please visit the NZQA website @: www.nzqa.govt.nz