The choice is wide. At Middleton Grange we aspire to academic excellence and to prepare our students for university. What we do need to say is that New Zealand is in the process of changing the names we give to qualifications. But there is no need to worry about the names as the qualifications all lead towards university entrance. New Zealand is much the same as your country.
Students work as hard as they can to ensure a place in a university or other tertiary institution.
New Zealand has a similar system to your country. If you want to get into a professional course at the best university then your examination marks at Year 13 must be excellent. When there are a lot more applicants than places then the university itself sets the entry standard, although a few places are usually set aside for International Students. Usually you should aim to get what we call a University Bursary at year 13 to enter university, although some students are accepted without a University Bursary. Polytechnics have a great variety of excellent courses.