Child Advocates Applaud Fees Cut

Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) says government deserves full credit for accepting the recommendations of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) board to cut NCEA fees in half for domestic secondary students in 2005.

Fees are a known barrier to educational achievement for students from low income families and CPAG calls on the government to go a step further and abolish all NCEA fees for local students thereby removing entirely one obstacle to achievement while also freeing teachers from this burdensome administrative and fee collection task.

Past research by CPAG has shown that though financial assistance and collecting fees has vastly improved since the inaugural NCEA in 2002, some families’ inability to pay is a recurrent obstacle to educational achievement and some students still have to choose subjects or pull out of courses based on what their family can afford.

Spokesperson Janfrie Wakim says "Exams are not an educational luxury item. Results gained are crucial to students' transition into tertiary training or the workforce and wherever possible financial impediments to gaining NCEA qualifications should be eliminated".

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