150,000 students granted formal QUALs after NCEA fees scrapped

Almost 150,000 current and former students with unpaid NCEA fees will now formally be awarded their NCEA credits or qualifications, the government has announced.

The move follows the Government’s decision in the Wellbeing Budget to remove the $76.70 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship fees, and write-off any historical NCEA fees owing dating back to 2002, when NCEA first started.

“We want to make things a bit easier for families to make ends meet and ensure every student who achieves NCEA can receive their qualification,” Education Minister Chris Hipkins said.

“Current and former students with unpaid fees will now have their credits or qualifications added to their official NZ Record of Achievement, backdated to the time the credits or qualifications were earned.

“It also means that employers will now be able to verify that their employee or potential employee has earned their NCEA qualification.

“These students have worked hard to earn these credits or qualifications, and it’s not right that they don’t get to use it because their families struggle to pay the fees.

“After we made the announcement in May to abolish NCEA fees, I’ve had feedback from a number of parents who are relieved that their child won’t be held back because they were unable to make the payments,” Chris Hipkins said.

Who will be impacted?

This change will affect almost 150,000 people (149,618), of whom over 60,500 (60,595) will be formally awarded at least one qualification. The others will receive credits, but not enough to trigger the awarding of a qualification.