KEY POINTS:
The writing skills of many secondary students are no better than that of primary school students, says the Ministry of Education.
Data gathered between 2000 and 2004 shows while students are generally performing well in reading and mathematics, their ability in writing is causing concern.
Writing skills achieved by students were on average at a lower curriculum level than for reading and mathematics.
Mary Chamberlain, senior manager education research, said evidence drawn from a range of sources showed there was a problem with writing, especially for boys.
She said she could not argue with the ministry's overview on secondary students in regard to writing.
"That's what the evidence is telling us even if we don't like it."
The overview said nearly half of secondary school students had the same distribution of writing scores as primary school pupils, indicating they were not improving beyond curriculum three level.
Ms Chamberlain said there was possibly an issue with poor motivation as far as students were concerned and teachers would need to find out what they could be doing to address the issue.
A national literacy project, which included improving writing and finding out what students could and could not do, was getting "fantastic results".
New Zealand students were among the best in the world at reading and now attention needed to focus on writing.
It was difficult to compare writing skills with other countries but the trends here were reflected in Australia and England.
Secondary Principals' Association president Graham Young said anecdotally writing had been an area of concern at secondary schools.
He said technology could be part of the problem with the ability to cut and paste, and download material.
Students were probably not getting enough practice in the writing most relevant to their future. "There might be too much emphasis on creative writing."
Writing
* Student progress slower than for reading and maths.
* Large number of students perform poorly.
* Poor performance persists throughout intermediate and secondary years.
* Girls consistently outperform boys across all years.
* School decile not significant.
Mathematics
* Significant differences in achievement between highest and lowest decile schools.
* Little difference in achievement between boys and girls.
* Maori and Pacific students behind others.
Reading
* Rapid increase in progress from Year 9.
* Differences between boys and girls reduce significantly as they get older.
* Student ethnicity differences in achievement are large and persistent.
* Students do not perform as well in decile 1 schools.
