Education - you call this a qualification?

According to National, 27 percent of school leavers leave school without a qualification equivalent to School Certificate, which is 80 NCEA level 1 credits. And 13 percent dont even get 13 NCEA credits. Labour calls 13 credits ( about three achievement standards) a qualification, but you can get a "qualification" without even having basic literacy and numeracy skills. One credit is approximately 10 hours work.

I could get a Labour "qualification by doing 130 hours work.

What can you get for 13 credits? Nothing worthwhile, as to pass NCEA level 1 you must have a combined 16 credits in literacy and numeracy Yet across all schools a third of boys fail to pass basic literacy credits.

So what happens to school leavers who get a Labour " qualification"? Well they either go on the dole, get a crappy job on the minimum wage, or go to further training on literacy and numeracy that they should have got when at school. And y`know - many are Maori. One in four Maori youth are unemployed, many don't have basic literacy or numeracy skills and many have a Labour qualification that is worth a lot less that one School Certificate subject.

And they are said to have achieved. That's scary.