Reason 3,046 why the NCEA must be dumped

Monday 14 Feb 2005 Deborah Coddington Press Releases -- Education

Political correctness in the so-called exam system of NCEA has surely reached its limit in the marking of the Scholarship papers, ACT Education spokesman Deborah Coddington said today.

"I've been forwarded a copy of the Chemistry 'answer booklet' (NZQA-speak for exam paper) by a student who failed to achieve a scholarship pass," Miss Coddington said.

"However, she has no idea how much she failed by because the 'overall level of performance' box is simply marked with 'N' - Not Achieved.

"Does she bother to try again? Maybe she missed by a few marks; maybe she was miles out. She'll never know because the whole stupid philosophy of the standards-based assessment is that students can't be ranked against each other.

"That might make someone feel bad about themselves, simply because someone else achieved a better mark.

"In the language of the students themselves, this stinks.

"It's time to stop treating our senior secondary students like idiots and bring back an exam system that doesn't insult their intelligence and their robustness.

"It's time to dump the NCEA," Miss Coddington said.

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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