NCEA improvements welcomed

NCEA improvements welcomed

Schools, students and employers will welcome changes to the NCEA announced today, says New Zealand School Trustees Association president Lorraine Kerr.

She says the changes will give more credibility to the qualification.

“The changes announced today will address many of the concerns that have surfaced over the past five years regarding NCEA.

“This includes the need to challenge students to a greater extent, and the concerns of employers around difficulties in understanding and interpreting NCEA results.

“The introduction of ‘excellence’ and ‘merit’ to NCEA certificates and to subject areas from 2008 will all contribute to a more balanced and credible national certificate.

“Credibility will also be enhanced by the extension of the moderation to 10 per cent, which should certainly give a greater confidence in the consistency of internal assessment,” says Ms. Kerr.

NZSTA supported the introduction of the NCEA system some five years ago, as it is an inherently far fairer qualification system than what it replaced.

Lorraine Kerr says it wasn’t perfect from day one, and perhaps “we all underestimated the difficulties of introducing such a huge change within what was a very tight timeframe”.

She cautions that the key success of the change will be that it does not become a bureaucratic costly exercise, adding unnecessary compliance on schools.

The NZSTA also welcomes the consultative manner in which these changes have been discussed both within and outside the sector.

ENDS

© Scoop Media