The extra credits given to high school students may have helped a lot of them over the line.

NCEA marks for 14,000 students have been published this morning.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins says the provisional results are similar to - or slightly better than - previous years.

He says he had concerns for school leavers, but is really encouraged NCEA numbers for level three are up - relative to in 2019.

He's acknowledging the secondary school system for the lengths they went to to ensure NCEA wasn't unduly disrupted, including providing a lot of extra tutorials.

Due to last year's challenges, NZQA offered an extra credit for every five credits earned.

Papatoetoe High School Principal Vaughn Coillault told Heather du Plessis-Allan they did slightly better than last year, but admits they had a bit of help.

"That indicates to me that maybe those Learning Recognition Credits, NCEA pitched that fairly well."

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