31 May 2007

Press Release
For immediate release.

The Republican spokesperson for Education, Paul Haynes, declared the new changes to NCEA to be mere tokenism.

“They are symptoms of a tired government that hasn’t got the creative fortitude to really tackle the flaws inherent in the system” he said.

“The drastic surgery that NCEA needed has turned into a mere band aid”

The acknowledgement of ’excellence’ or ‘merit’ on next years leavers credentials is a hollow reward, as a student with ’achieved’ still gains the same number of credits.
Since only a limited number of ‘excellence’ will be accorded, many students will still opt to settle for a pass that requires less effort for the same gain.”

Haynes further states,

“That as students were still able to ask for recounts, and second assessments for a standard they have failed, the system still seriously lacked the necessary rigor.”

“The Ministry and NZQA are still setting the achievement standards in their ivory towers and leaving the moderators and teachers struggling to get uniformity in schools.”

“As well,”Haynes said “in the passed 7 years the Education Ministry staff has increased from 2890 to 3249 without including consultants, and now a new team of full time specialist staff will be hired to try and resurrect NCEA.

This at a time when the governments own report says that even well managed schools throughout the country are regularly in deficit.”

“After 5 years and huge expenditure, all we have is another damp sparkler instead of the rocket NCEA really needs,” he said.

ENDS

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