Calls for more English language help for foreign students

Educators are calling for intensive English courses for foreign students who arrive in New Zealand schools with very little or no English, as statistics show that many fail to get university entrance, writes Simon Collins for NZ Herald.

Keith Burgess, the director of studies at Canterbury College which provides foundation English courses in Christchurch, says some secondary schools are dropping students straight "into the deep end" in mainstream classes when they can't understand anything. "We have chosen not to have any selection procedure, we take all comers, therefore we have people who can't cope intellectually with high school," he said.

He has obtained data under the Official Information Act showing that only 36% of Year 13 international students attempted the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) in 2017, and of those only 60% achieved university entrance. That meant only 21% of all Year 13 international students achieved university entrance. "Eighty per cent are failing. They are sitting in limbo at the end of it; they have nowhere to go," he said.
Full report on the NZ Herald site