ACT Education spokesperson Donna Awatere Huata said today that she agreed with Principal John Morris that the National Certificate of Educational Achievement will be a meaningless qualification for secondary students.

“The abolition of fifth form certificate, sixth form certificate and bursary will only ‘dumb down’ our education system, at the expense of children’s education.

“If students are to compete in a modern knowledge-based economy then clearly the Ministry must introduce accurate benchmarks and assessment learning. The NCEA is a sham of unit standards and checklists.”

Mrs Huata said that similar curriculum changes in Scotland and Australia have been a total disaster.

“The NCEA is unproven and untested. How can the Ministry of Education implement a system that will fail?

“Associate Minister of Education Steve Maharey needs to listen to 82 per cent of teachers polled who believe there are inadequate resources to implement the NCEA.”

Mrs Huata has been meeting with teachers concerned by the changes and believed that many schools would follow Auckland Grammar’s lead and implement changes of their own.

“Auckland Grammar is giving a clear message to the Minister of Education. They are about to adopt an international version of England’s A-level examinations. In fact one positive outcome of the proposed changes might be that it brings in an almost universal use of international exams like the baccalaureate and the Cambridge exam and others.”

ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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