NCEA Moves in the Right Direction But Not Far Eno

maxim institute media release
29 May 2007

NCEA Moves in the Right Direction But Not Far Enough

“For too long New Zealand’s children have been suffering under a B-grade examination system and while the changes announced by Education Minister, Steve Maharey, today fail to attend to all the problems with the NCEA, they are a welcome step in the right direction,” says Steve Thomas, Researcher at the Maxim Institute.

The recommendations still fail to address a number of areas. The changes do not introduce a measure of objectivity into the moderation of internal achievement standards by using external examinations. Instead NZQA and the Ministry of Education will still set the achievement standards, relying on moderators and teachers to arrive at a uniform understanding of the standards without using procedures like pre-testing.

“It is also doubtful that the simple introduction of merit and excellence grades for subjects will attend to the heart of the demotivation that NCEA breeds among pupils. There is still nothing to stop pupils from collecting the credits they need to and then slacking off,” says Steve Thomas.

“It is pleasing to see more transparency being added into the system through the reporting of not achieved grades for internally assessed achievement standards, as well as external ones. Increasing the percentage of work being moderated from 3 percent to 10 percent is also a step which was desperately needed to ensure consistent marking between internal and external assessment,” says Steve Thomas.

“While it is good that achievement standards will be graded with more than simply a pass/fail grade, the four-tier grade system that is being proposed still fails to introduce much needed precision into the system. This precision could be achieved by using a scale with more grade levels,” says Steve Thomas.

“It can be no coincidence that these changes have come about after more and more secondary schools around New Zealand have indicated an intention to flee to other examination systems like the Cambridge International Exams. Education sets children up for life, it is imperative that we are not satisfied until parents, pupils, teachers and employers can have confidence that the NCEA produces meaningful precise results. These changes are an improvement on the status quo, but there is still much further to go,” says Steve Thomas.

ENDS

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