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Most secondary teachers are not convinced the NCEA school qualification needs replacing, a new national survey shows.
The NZ Council for Educational Research study also found only a quarter of respondents agreed the government's replacement qualification is a step in the right direction.
"Most teachers indicated agreement (71 percent, with 45 percent strongly agreeing) that NCEA should be improved rather than removed, with almost as many (68 percent) indicating concern that the proposed changes will limit the learning opportunities and pathways for students in their school," the report said.
"More teachers indicated disagreement (44 percent) than agreement (24 percent) that the proposed change to the new Year 12 and Year 13 certificates was going in the right direction, and nearly a third chose a neutral response."
The survey was conducted in the first few months of 2026 and last months of 2025, and had 830 respondents from 126 schools.
It found that just over half of respondents disagreed the new qualification would reduce inequities.
The report said 100 teachers also made comments about the changes, many of them criticising the process and rationale.
"I am perturbed by the pace of change and lack of transparency and consultation. The lack of engagement with subject associations is highly problematic. This seems to be driven by ideology rather than data," said one.
Some warned that the new qualification would disadvantage some students.
"It will severely disadvantage any students with special learning needs, and students of other cultures/languages. It will further hierarchise the subjects/learning areas," a teacher wrote.
The report said some teachers' comments acknowledged problems with NCEA such as choosing not to sit exams because they did not need the credits and a few strongly supported the change.
"I am highly enthused about the proposed changes and see them as long overdue. NCEA is a failed experiment; I champion and applaud its demise," a respondent said.
The teachers' results were similar to those of principals, whose responses to the same survey were covered in a report published at the end of June.
"A majority of principals indicated agreement (70 percent, with 57 percent strongly agreeing) that NCEA should be improved rather than removed. Similarly, 68 percent indicated concern that the proposed changes will limit the learning opportunities and pathways for students in their school," that report said.
"Just under half (47 percent) indicated disagreement that the proposed change to the new Year 12 and Year 13 certificates were going in the right direction, and the same proportion (47 percent) indicated disagreement that their school could implement the proposed changes in the time frames proposed."
The principals' results showed 28% agreed with the direction of the qualification changes.
Teachers love their job, but...
The survey found more teachers reported disruptive behaviour in their classrooms than in the past.
"In 2025, 67 percent of teachers "sometimes" or "often" experienced student behaviour that caused serious disruption to their teaching. This has increased over time, from 48 percent in 2015, 57 percent in 2018, and 61 percent in 2021," the survey report said.
Most teachers, 71%, said they would like to reduce the pace of change in their work, 62% wanted more teacher aides, and 57% wanted better pay.
The report said 91 respondents made comments about teaching which covered five broad themes: teachers loved their job, but teachers felt undervalued; teachers were frustrated by politics and pace of change in education; student needs and behaviours were a challenge; teacher stress, workload, and burnout were key concerns.
"I'm only three years into teaching and have been physically assaulted three times by students, breaking up physical fights. There is little to no consequences for students that show this antisocial behaviour," wrote one teacher.
"Some days I go home exhausted and overstimulated from being everything for these students. Some days I feel like a social worker, a nurse, a referee and a parent to the class," they continued.
Another wrote: "Students are coming to school well behind where they should be developmentally and academically with a long list of behavioural issues that we are expected to deal with that is now no longer within the scope of what we've been taught how to deal with."
"Students are addicted to technology and struggle to engage with any patience-requiring tasks," said one teacher.
"I love working with students, but there are so many issues that they bring into the classroom that are barriers to their learning. There is a sense of entitlement among students and parents," said another.
The report said two-thirds of teachers said they were currently integrating generative artificial intelligence (AI) into their teaching practices.
"The most common use was to develop learning materials. Teachers who don't use AI in their teaching practice were concerned about quality, bias, and ethical impacts," it said.
The survey found most teachers using AI used free AI tools, rather than paid versions that were more advanced and had better security.
It found most teachers worried about how AI would affect their students' learning.
"A majority (71 percent) agreed or strongly agreed that they were concerned that the use of generative AI will undermine students' learning. At the same time, over a third of teachers (36 percent) indicated that they were enthusiastic about the future of generative AI," the report said.
Most secondary teachers (72%) said they incorporated te reo and tikanga Māori into their teaching, more than in previous years.
The report said less than half of teachers indicated having sufficient support to teach students with additional learning needs such as disabilities or physical or mental health or behaviour issues.
"Most teachers taught students learning English as an additional language but less than half indicated they have skills and knowledge to do so or have sufficient support," it said.
