Nick Smith National Education Spokesperson

29 October 2002

Abolition of Bursary premature

The decision to abolish Bursary in 2004 and replace it with Level 3 of the NCEA is grossly premature, says National's Education spokesperson Nick Smith.

"The Government is showing reckless disregard for the credibility of our school qualifications system. We have no guarantee that Level 1 NCEA will work and results are not due out until January. A question mark hangs over Level 2 with schools having a choice to proceed or not. To decide now that they are proceeding with Level 3 and to scrap Bursary is irresponsible.

"This decision is a crude attempt to bully schools into doing Level 2 NCEA next year. Schools are left with a 'Clayton's Choice' - if they decide not to proceed with Level 2, their students will be forced to do Level 3 NCEA.

"Bursary has become a very credible academic qualification used by universities for determining entry to many programmes like medicine, engineering and law. It must not be scrapped until there's considerably more confidence in its replacement," says Dr Smith.

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