By 1news.co.nz
A list of New Zealand’s top 10 high schools, based on their ability to prepare students for admission into the world’s best universities, are mostly private, Auckland-based and co-educational.
Crimson Education’s annual school rankings are now in its fifth year.
The schools are assessed on a range of factors including university admission rates, academic achievement, extracurricular activities on offer and even school demographics.
Eight of the country’s top 10 offered students an alternative qualification to NCEA, such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) or the A Levels.
The alternatives are internationally recognised, and an increasing number of high schools are offering them.
Auckland’s Rangitoto College, ranked sixth in the country, is among them.
“We are seeing an increase number of students choosing to take [the IB],” said principal Patrick Gale.
“It’s a very well-rounded qualification which requires students to have breadth across the curriculum rather than specified one particular area of the curriculum.”
Crimson Education CEO Jamie Beaton said NCEA had some weaknesses.
“If you’re trying to get into the world’s best universities, NCEA is not as well understood as the A Levels or the IB.
“We see in our data that students trying to get into Auckland medical school with A Levels or the IB are about six times more likely to get in than students doing NCEA.”
Former St Hilda’s Collegiate School student Anna Hutchens completed an A Levels Qualification through the Crimson Global Academy because it wasn’t offered at her high school.
“NCEA and the A Levels are very different. Personally if I had my way, every school in New Zealand should be doing A Levels,” she said.
“A Levels is much, much simpler. Your grade is literally how many marks you get out of 100, as opposed to the credits and the standards and all of that NCEA lingo.
“With NCEA you might do up to six subjects or five whereas with A Levels, you do three or four. You get to go a lot more in-depth and learn so much more about the subjects you’re keen on.”
Hutchens is now set to study medicine at Oxford University and said having an A Levels qualification helped to get her there.
“Without them, you don’t really stand much of a chance, unfortunately – simply because you’re applying against people who have done these courses that are much harder and have a lot more knowledge.
“The system is also geared to an internationally recognised curriculum.”
New Zealand’s top 10 schools:
1) ACG Parnell College
2) St Cuthbert’s College
3) Kristin School
4) Pinehurst School
5) Diocesan School For Girls
6) Rangitoto College
7) St Kentigern College
8) Baradene College of the Sacred Heart
9) Woodford House
10) Macleans College
