What is Literacy about?
Literacy is a foundational skill that enables access to further learning, develops important life skills, and allows people to fully engage in work and in their communities.
Everyone has a role to play in developing NCEA literacy, including school leaders, kaiako, whānau and ākonga.
Strong foundational reading and writing skills increase ākonga engagement and:
- improve work and career outcomes;
- enable broader contribution in communities; and
- lead to better health outcomes.
About NCEA Literacy
NCEA Literacy supports ākonga to develop a level of literacy knowledge and skills to engage successfully with all the learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum, as well as learning in non-school settings. NCEA Literacy covers foundational literacy. This is approximately Level 4/5 of the New Zealand Curriculum, whereby a student has full control over level 4 and is ready to work at Level 5.
From 2024, to gain an NCEA qualification, ākonga must pass either a Te Reo Matatini standard or these two Literacy standards:
- US32403: Read written texts to understand ideas and information
- US32405: Write texts to communicate ideas and information. The Literacy standards require ākonga to demonstrate the following skills:
Big Ideas and Significant Learning
Literacy in Your Classroom - A guide for kaiako explaining why literacy is important in all subject areas.
Literacy Pedagogy Guides (LPGs) - A set of guides that translate the Unpacking Literacy document into specific NCEA learning areas and subjects. These may be useful when considering how you can incorporate literacy into your classroom.
About Te Reo Matatini - Find out more about the Te Reo Matatini standards ākonga can sit as an alternative to the Literacy standards.
About NCEA Numeracy - An overview of the changes to NCEA Numeracy.
See additional readings and sources for NCEA Literacy and Numeracy.