Re-enrolment of Christchurch school students, at 13 September 2011

Prepared by Statistics New Zealand

In response to the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Statistics New Zealand produced a brief overview of Ministry of Education re-enrolment data for primary, intermediate, and secondary school students. These figures are available on request from the Ministry of Education until mid-November, however Statistics NZ is no longer updating this overview. The final update of this data by Statistics NZ is as at 13 September 2011.

How many have re-enrolled and how many have returned

There were 12,069 students who were enrolled in the Christchurch city, Selwyn district, and Waimakariri district before the earthquake on 22 February 2011 who re-enrolled in other schools around the country. This is 15.9 percent of the students enrolled in these areas in July 2010. Over a quarter (3,180 students) were re-enrolments within Christchurch city, Selwyn district, and Waimakariri district. 

As at 13 September, 6,630 students had returned to their original school, leaving 5,442 students still away from their original school (7.1 percent of the students enrolled in these areas in July 2010). Of those students still away from their original school, 2,196 (40.4 percent) re-enrolled elsewhere in Christchurch city, Selwyn district, and Waimakariri district and 3,246 (59.6 percent) are re-enrolled outside of Christchurch city, Selwyn district, and Waimakariri district. It should be noted that some re-enrolments in a school year are expected and not all re-enrolments will be related to the earthquake.

Re-enrolments from Christchurch city, Selwyn district, and Waimakariri district were greatest in the week following the earthquake (3,567 students). The number of students who are re-enrolling at other locations around New Zealand has slowed since then. The total number of students still away from their original school has dropped from a peak of 7,581 on 17 March as many students have returned to their original school. 

Figure 1

 Table 1

Who has re-enrolled and who has returned 

The majority of re-enrolments were at primary schools (56.5 percent, 6,819 students), followed by secondary schools (27.9 percent, 3,366 students), and intermediate schools (15.6 percent, 1,887 students). Slightly higher proportions of students from primary (55.8 percent) and intermediate schools (58.3 percent) had returned to their original schools compared to students from secondary schools (51.1 percent). Overall, 54.9 percent of students had returned to their original school in Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri.

More female students re-enrolled than males (52.4 percent and 47.6 percent, respectively), particularly at secondary schools (57.1 percent compared with 42.9 percent). A slightly higher proportion of females who had re-enrolled have returned to their original school (56.7 percent compared to 52.9 percent of males).

Figure 2

Table 2

Where they have re-enrolled and returned from 

The majority of students who re-enrolled remained in the South Island (69.2 percent, 8,355 students), while 28.2 percent (3,405 students) re-enrolled within the North Island. See table 4 for re-enrolments by territorial authority and region. A smaller proportion of people who re-enrolled in the North Island have returned to their original school  at 50.0 percent (1,701 students), compared with 57.1 percent (4,773 students) in the South Island.

Over 40 percent of students previously enrolled in the Christchurch city or Selwyn or Waimakariri districts re-enrolled within the Canterbury region (5,046 students); 2,379 of these students have since returned to their original schools. Within the Canterbury region, most re-enrolments were in the Christchurch city (1,869 students), Waimakariri (690 students), Selwyn (624 students),  Timaru (576 students), Ashburton (540 students), and Hurunui districts (408 students).  

Regions close to Canterbury received a significant number of re-enrolments – Otago (12.3 percent, 1,482 students) and the West Coast/Tasman/Nelson/Marlborough regions (11.6 percent, 1,404 students). These regions also have the highest rates of students returning to their original school - Otago with 73.8 percent, West Coast/Tasman/Nelson/Marlborough regions with 70.6 percent, along with Southland at 72.7 percent.

At the territorial authority level, the largest number of South Island re-enrolments outside the Canterbury region were in the Dunedin city (513 students),  Queenstown-Lakes district (510 students), Marlborough district (387 students), Tasman district (324 students), Nelson city (312 students), Invercargill city (246 students), and Waitaki district (243 students).

Within the North Island, the largest proportion re-enrolled in the Auckland (1,464 students), Wellington (516 students) and Waikato (468 students) regions.  A small number of students re-enrolled at Te Kura - The Correspondence School (2.6 percent, 309 students). Around half of these correspondence students (49.4 percent, 153 students) had returned to their original school by 13 September.  

Figure 3

Table 3

Table 4

For technical information contact: 
Deborah Spackman
Wellington 04 931 4600
Email: info@stats.govt.nz