NCEA support requests triple as more students need exam help

Author: Jamie Cunningham,
Publish Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2026, 5:00am

More students are needing extra help to sit NCEA exams, with rising learning and mental health needs driving demand.

NZQA data shows Special Assessment Condition applications have more than tripled in the past decade, climbing from 6843 in 2015 to 23,141 last year.

The support allows students with learning, medical, physical or sensory needs to access assessments fairly, and can include extra time, rest breaks, readers or writers.

Medical-related applications have driven much of the growth, increasing more than 340% over the past decade, with ADHD and depression among the fastest-growing categories.

NZQA said better awareness and identification of students needing support is also contributing to the rise, with applications backed by school evidence increasing more than five-fold since 2015.

Deputy chief executive of assessment Jann Marshall said NZQA has worked to reduce administrative barriers, making it easier for eligible students to access support.

“We are also seeing increasing numbers of students with multiple or intersecting needs, which suggests that case complexity is growing as well as overall application volumes,” she said.

“For example, the number of learners with both medical and learning needs increased from 1164 in 2023 to 2077 in 2025.”

Secondary Principals’ Council chair Steve McCracken said schools are experiencing the rise firsthand.

“Schools are seeing a mixture of things, all the way through from mental health and special reasons for seeking special assessment conditions, all the way through to being behind in terms of curriculum achievement,” he said.

He said some students are still feeling the effects of disrupted learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“What we’re seeing, hopefully, is the tail end of this Covid-19, pattern where, students that are going through these assessments at the moment were affected by home learning.”

McCracken said the support needed can vary significantly between students, but schools are becoming better at identifying individual needs.

He said the increase is also putting pressure on schools, particularly during exam periods.

“Many still have their year nines and tens come the end of year assessments and examinations whilst their seniors are off on exams.”

“The juniors are still there doing classwork. So, if we’re looking at individualised spacing and compartments for students to do their assessments, it takes up physical space as well as teacher resource and support resource.”

“We’re not completely funded to look after them all individually. So, that has a financial implication as well as a human resource implication for us.”

NZQA said the sustained growth in demand has created pressure on processing, operational capacity, budgets and systems.

Marshall said spending on Special Assessment Conditions for external assessments increased from about $1.15 million in 2019 to $2.37 million in 2024.

“The growth is being driven by higher application volumes, increasingly complex cases, greater use of higher-cost supports such as reader-writers and separate accommodation, and increases in staffing and contractor costs,” she said.

NZQA says the support system will remain as NCEA changes, although demand is expected to shift as the new qualification structure is introduced.

Marshall said the removal of NCEA Level 1 in 2028 is expected to reduce demand in the short term, before increasing again as more students move into Years 12 and 13 under the new system.

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education and general news. She joined Newstalk ZB in 2023 after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.