The National Party’s decision to scrap NCEA entirely guarantees many thousands of children will leave school with no qualification, no love of learning, and no preparation for a complex and fast-changing world, the Green Party says.

“One thing is clear from the announcement today by Christopher Luxon and Erica Stanford, they want more students to fail rather than more students to succeed.

“Education is about encouraging curiosity and nurturing our future generation’s love of learning. NCEA is a world class qualification, one that is already internationally benchmarked. New Zealand students are readily accepted into top universities overseas with NCEA,” says Lawrence Xu-Nan, Green Party spokesperson for education.

“New Zealand has seen the harm of standardising assessment, where some students are left further behind - especially Māori, Pasifika, disabled and neurodivergent, and rural students. The Minister herself has confirmed that students could leave school without a qualification.

“The real world does not exist in neat little five subject boxes. Such siloed thinking will be more detrimental for our students’ learning than ever before. However, this Government is addicted to change and is determined to bring back outdated standardised assessments that do not prepare our students for the future.

“There is also no confirmation on university entrance requirements, nor the relevant curricula that would support the qualification. This is another example of this Government’s cart-before-the-horse approach.

“The Green Party is committed to halting the disastrous curriculum and qualification changes until there has been meaningful consultation with the communities, including teachers and principals, parents, and students to ensure that any change is centred on the needs and aspiration of individual students,” says Xu-Nan.

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