Academic achievement for indigenous school leavers is an important indicator of success at school and is likely to provide future opportunities in life and support resilience in an uncertain world. This study builds on previous research which established the top performing schools for Māori students in achieving University Entrance in the New Zealand education system (Highfield et al., 2025).  To understand the achievement rates of indigenous Māori students in their final year of secondary school, we conducted a further in-depth analysis of academic results of New Zealand school leavers to understand students patterns of achievement and subject choices. An analysis of the academic achievement of Māori students in STEM subjects in New Zealand secondary schools probed the pattern of curriculum subject enrolment and achievement for this group compared to their peers.

In order for society to become more equitable, it is essential that students from underrepresented groups have equal access to a university level education, should that be the pathway they wish to pursue. A university education also plays a critical role in promoting both social and economic mobility (OECD, 2025).   The ongoing impact of colonisation in New Zealand means there has historically been considerable disparity in student achievement between Māori students and their peers as they more likely to have higher representation in lower socio economic areas  and schools. Research continues to reveal this group are subjected to low teacher expectations and systemic discrimination within the secondary school context (Turner-Adams et al., 2023). Therefore, understanding patterns of achievement and subject choice among Māori students is important for advancing equity, particularly as a growing proportion of New Zealanders will identify as Māori by 2030 (Fowler, 2018). Previous studies have shown that approximately half of the Māori students who remain in school until age 18 gain University Entrance (UE), compared to 81 percent for non-Māori (Fowler, 2018; NZQA, 2024) and yet high achievement at school for all student groups is important because it enables young people to learn the skills needed to succeed in a knowledge-based society (World Economic Forum, 2023). 

Despite rising university participation across OECD countries, access remains uneven (OECD, 2025).  Students with higher socio-economic status (SES) are more likely to attend university than their peers from lower socioeconomic groups (OECD, 2025) and indigenous and minority groups continue to be underrepresented (Theodore et al., 2016).  Socio-economic status has been shown to influence both student success (Helme, 2010; Woods-McConney et al., 2013) and decisions to pursue STEM pathways (Fullarton & Ainley, 2000) although in an Australian study Jefferies et al, (2020) found that SES was only an indirect predictor of student’s subject choices, mediated by enjoyment in subject material and achievement in the subject. 

The research questions that have guided the investigation examine how Māori students’ enrolment and achievement in mathematics and science compare between the academically top performing schools for Māori and other schools in New Zealand as well as investigating the curriculum subjects are Māori students enrolling and achieving in. To answer these questions we examined the extent to which Māori students’ enrolment and achievement in mathematics and science subjects in their final year of secondary school compared to the average enrolment and achievement of all students in the same school .

Answering the research questions for this paper required a quantitative analysis of Year 13 students (17-18 year olds) who had achieved University Entrance (UE), by subject and school. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) was approached for access to the full data set and agreement was reached to ensure the data supplied was managed in accordance with privacy guidelines. From the NZQA dataset, a total of 448 non-private (state and state-integrated) secondary schools had available UE data. Due to missing enrollment and/or achievement data in mathematics and science subjects for some schools, the total sample of New Zealand secondary schools suitable for analysis was 87 schools that met the criteria for high performing schools for Māori students. In this study, the number of students who enrolled in and achieved 14 or more credits was used as a measure of enrolment and achievement for each school because students require a minimum of 14 credits, in at least three subjects, to achieve university entrance. Identifying Māori students’ enrollment and achievement in mathematics and science in the academically top performing schools for Māori and other schools in New Zealand, required independent sample t-tests (or the non-parametric equivalent if the data is not normally distributed). This enabled us to determine if there were statistically significant differences in student enrollment and achievement rates in mathematics and science between Māori students in the top Māori schools and the other schools. To understand how Māori students’ enrollment and achievement in mathematics and science compared to the overall average of all students in the same school, paired sample t-tests (or the non-parametric equivalent if the data is not normally distributed) were used. This allowed an examination of statistically significant differences in student enrollment and achievement rates in mathematics and science between Māori students and the overall school average in the top Māori schools. Investigation of the curriculum subjects where Māori students in the top performing schools were enrolling and achieving required a descriptive analysis of each school’s enrollment and achieved grades for all curriculum subjects offered at year 13 in which students enrolled in their last year at high school.

The findings revealed that Māori students in the top performing schools for Māori (n = 87) had significantly higher UE enrolled and achieved rates in both mathematics and science subjects compared to Māori students in other schools (n = 274). However, Māori students’ enrolled rates in science, as well as achieved rates in both mathematics and science were statistically significantly lower than the overall average rates of all students in the same school. This analysis reveals Māori students are enrolling in mathematics and science courses in their last year of secondary school but few are gaining the credits required for a STEM focused UE pathway. Less than 10% of Māori students in these 87 top-performing schools gained 14 credits or more in chemistry, calculus or physics compared to 28% who gained sufficient credits in English. Our study findings show that there are considerable disparities in some STEM subject areas in terms of the numbers of Māori students who did not go on to achieve 14 credits and sit the external examinations. The study also highlights the non-STEM subjects where Māori students were enrolling and achieving success. Māori students were outperforming non-Māori students in subjects which allowed them to bring their own cultural capital to the table such as Te Reo Māori language, the Arts subjects and more practically and professionally oriented areas such as physical education and health. We contend that Māori students select subjects they enjoy, are likely to achieve in and know they will be taught effectively in order to gain academic success and build their self-efficacy. We conclude that ongoing research into the possible reasons for subject selection and relative rates of achievement as contextualized within the larger school and sociopolitical context are required.

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