The number of teenagers leaving school with no qualification rose for the second consecutive year in 2019, with boys and Māori worst off.
Education Ministry figures show 12 percent of last year's school leavers did not have an NCEA qualification, up from 11 percent in 2018.
The group represented 7464 of more than 61,000 young people who left school last year and numbered several hundred more than in 2018.
Deidre Shea from the Secondary Principals Association told RNZ education correspondent John Gerritsen the figures are worrying.
