Hon Bill English
National Party Education Spokesman

17 July 2006

NCEA: Time for Maharey to get serious

The problem of students receiving faulty NCEA results will never be solved while the Education Minister is more interested in taking petty pot shots at his opponents than delivering fair and valid assessment, says National Party Education spokesman Bill English.

Media reports at the weekend revealed that:

- 39% of the internal assessments checked by NQZA are wrong.
- The results aren't changed even when the assessment task is wrong.
- Teachers can, and do, lift individual results.
- Teachers decide which assessments they send in for checking.

“Mr Maharey has disputed this figure, but answers to parliamentary questions show that 10% of assessments submitted for moderation are of such a poor standard that they are considered invalid, and a further 29% require review,” says Mr English.

“The greatest concern arising from the weekend’s revelations is that Mr Maharey has shown no sign of having any understanding of the seriousness of a problem which allows thousands of students to receive wrong or faulty results which are never corrected.

“Until the Minister accepts and acknowledges just how serious this situation is, there is no chance of it being resolved under a Labour Government.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media