108 The percentage of children who have attended Early Childhood Education before starting school has steadily increased each year since 2000, and was 96.1% as at March 2015. This was an increase of 0.2 percentage points since March 2014. The Ministry of Education is intensifying engagement with priority communities in order to reach the 98% target in 2016.56 109 New Zealand’s National Certificates of Educational Achievement (“NCEA”) are national qualifications for senior secondary school students. NCEA is recognised by employers and used as the benchmark for selection by universities and polytechnics. Education achievement of Level 2 NCEA is a significant indicator of positive outcomes in later life. The Government has set a Better Public Service Target that 85% of 18 year-olds will have achieved NCEA Level 2 or an equivalent qualification in 2017. The 2014 NCEA Level 2 result for 18 year-olds is 81.2%, compared with 78.6% in 2013 and 77.2% in 2012. Māori and Pasifika achievement improved at a faster rate than overall. The rate of improvement from 2011 to 2014 for all students has been 74.3% to 81.2% or a 6.9% change. For Māori there has been a 10.6% change and Pasifika students a change of 9.5%. 2015 figures were not available at the time of writing.57 110 Ka Hikitia – Accelerating Success 2013-2017 outlines five focus areas to raise Māori achievement in education, namely improving Māori language, increasing earlychildhood education (“ECE”), improving achievement in primary and secondary education, increasing success in tertiary education, and for education sector agencies to create conditions for Māori students to achieve. Since Ka Hikitia was introduced, more Māori children are attending ECE and Māori students’ performance in National Standards (reading, writing and mathematics) and by the end of 2014 attainment of NCEA Level 2 has increased by approximately 2 %. 58 111 Māori participation and achievement in tertiary education has also increased in recent years. Twenty eight percent of Māori students were studying at Bachelors level and above in 2014, up from 21 % in 2007. The rate at which Māori complete qualifications has also increased: of Māori who started full-time study at Level 4 or above in 2007, 62 % had completed a qualification within five years, compared with a rate of 53 % for those who started in 2004.59 112 However, as acknowledged in Ka Hikitia, more needs to be done. Accordingly the Government has set the following Better Public Service targets:  56 98% of children starting school will have participated in early childhood https://www.ssc.govt.nz/bps-supporting-vulnerable-children#result2 57 https://www.ssc.govt.nz/bps-boosting-skills-employment#result5 http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Strategies-and-policies/Ka-Hikitia/KH-DataSnapshot2014.pdf 59 New Zealand’s twenty first to twenty-second periodic reports under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 58 Page 32 of 93 Human Rights Commission submission to the Human Rights Committee in relation to New Zealand’s 6th periodic review under the ICCPR