Tuesday, 29 May 2007

NCEA will still struggle to motivate

United Future education spokesperson Judy Turner says that today’s changes to NCEA move in the right direction, but will not do enough to effectively motivate students - particularly high achievers and boys.

“While expanding the merit and excellence grades for NCEA is a good move to better reward student effort, the changes will not do enough to undo the damage that NCEA has done to student motivation,” says Mrs Turner.

“For as long as the majority of students all receive exactly the same grade (achieved), the system will de-motivate students – particularly boys who are falling further behind and dropping out in huge numbers under NCEA.

“NCEA took all competition out of the system – both to improve individually and also between peers.

“While it may feel good to teach students that there are no losers and everyone is equally and ‘achiever’, this is not reality and does students few favours in the long run.”

Mrs Turner says that introducing more grade bands needs to be looked into closely.

“The true test will be whether NCEA can gain the support of parents, teachers, principals and employers.”

ENDS

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