Year 12 students, from left, Nancy Johnson, Ruby Sidoruk, and Zoe Holland in Napier. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green
Students set to begin end-of-year exams today say they have never known high school without some kind of disruption to their learning schedule.
Now, they're just getting on with it.
Since the first Covid lockdown in 2021, there hasn't been a school year unaffected by lockdowns, severe weather or teacher strikes meaning less time in the classroom, but students say their teachers have worked tirelessly to get them up to speed.
In Auckland, Albany Senior High School head student Kendall Bindon said the teachers had been "amazing" at making themselves available to help students who asked for it.
"We definitely didn't think we were going to have anything after Covid, but the floods have been a totally different thing, as well as the teacher strikes, everything just adding in something else, another obstacle."
Year 11 student Abbie Cowie said the teacher strikes took time out of their schedules, until the Post Primary Teachers' Association agreed on the arbitration process for its pay dispute with the Ministry of Education in June, putting a halt to their refusal to teach two year groups four days a week.
"We really didn't know what to expect from it," Cowie said. "It was a bit disruptive, seeing as the middle of our week was taken out, and people were expecting us to do stuff at home, and it was a bit [of] miscommunication, but I think once that was all over we really got back on track to crack in for exams."
In Hawke's Bay, friends Ruby Sidoruk, Nancy Johnson and Zoe Holland are nearing the end of year 12, the penultimate year of high school - famously a "big year" for students looking to gain entry to university.
They had had a week and a half off school when Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread damage and took out power, internet and communications in February.
Sidoruk said she had become aware of how fast things could change, and it made their mock exams, from which their final grades could be taken if they could not sit the end-of-year exam, feel all the more important.
"I feel like now, [with] Covid, a cyclone, all these possibilities, mocks actually could matter."
In an aide memoire to the minister, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) said because of the flexibility of the NCEA framework, individual schools could decide how to mitigate disruption internally.
Nancy Johnson said her school had removed a handful of exams, known as internals, during the year, but that had put more weight on the end-of-year exams.
"In the long run, we have to now pass our externals to get enough credits for our subjects," she said.
But for school-leavers at any school closed for 20 to 29 days due to weather, up to five unspecified credits were on offer, if it would make the difference between attaining their qualification or failing. NZQA could not confirm how many schools this applied to.
Deputy chief executive for assessment, Jann Marshall, said no schools had yet applied for the unspecified credits, but they could do so even after the final results were released in January.
Principal of Wairoa College, one of the worst-hit towns following Cyclone Gabrielle, Jo-Anne Vennell said this criteria would not help them much.
"That's not actually the issue, about how many days you're closed. For me, it's more the impact of the stress of it, the impact that it has on their general motivation," Vennell said.
The school had a role of 420, and was closed for two weeks following the storm.
"Our kids have probably struggled in terms of [it being] another year we've been interrupted, and so we've had to do quite a bit of work in terms of motivation and looking beyond school and what else is out there next, and encouraging them along the way."
Families had struggled financially: Wairoa has twice the national unemployment rate, and Vennell said some students left school earlier than expected to begin employment.
This year the school had provided bags, shoes, uniforms and stationary, funded with help from organisations and other schools around the country.
She said she was expecting results to be on par with last year, but not as good as pre-Covid results three years ago.
The first exams begin at 9.30am Monday, with level 1 Japanese, level 2 Latin, and level 3 te reo Māori, and conclude on 30 November with level 1 social studies and level 2 dance.
