Introduction

The following report presents the findings from an analysis of the Year 7-13 Questionnaires – see Appendix 1.  The questionnaire was sent to 608 schools registered on the Ministry of Education database as providing programmes in technology to students ranging across Year 7-13. The questionnaires were sent out 15th November 2007.  The return date was given as 3rd December 2007 although returns up until early January were accepted for analysis.

A total of 245 schools responded to the questionnaire, showing an overall return rate of 40%. The school type and return rates are provided in Table 1.

Table 1: School Type and Return Rates

As can be calculated from the figures in Table 1, the majority of schools that returned questionnaires were state schools - a total of 197 or 80.4% of total returns.  State schools also had the highest return rate at 53%.  Thirty six of the total returns (14.7%) were from state-integrated schools with a return rate of 39.6%.  The remaining 12 responses (4.9% of the total returns) were from fully private schools showing a return rate of 17%.

A total of 65 intermediate schools/technology centres sent in responses showing the highest overall return rate of 52.8% for school type, although only accounting for 26.5% of the total questionnaires received.  Secondary schools returned the highest number of questionnaires (152 or 62.1% of questionnaires received).  However, their return rate at 45.4% was lower than that of the intermediate/technology centres.  Twenty seven composite schools returned responses accounting for 11% of questionnaires received with a return rate of 18.5%.  The remaining response was from a middle school accounting for 0.4% of the questionnaires received, but showing a 25% return rate for this school type.

The questionnaires returned provided data on a total of 1192 teachers. A breakdown of this data is presented under Question 2 below.