NCEA overhaul sparks optimism and concern

Teachers' unions are cautiously optimistic changes to the country's secondary school qualifications framework will work, provided they are implemented and resourced well.

But the opposition is concerned the "complete overhaul" goes too far.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford on Monday said NCEA Level 1 would be replaced with foundation literacy and numeracy tests. Levels 2 and 3 would be replaced with a New Zealand Certificate of Education and an Advanced Certificate.

Students would be required to take five subjects and pass at least four to get each certificate. Marking would be out of 100, and grades range from A to E.

Stanford said, as a parent, she did not understand how NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement) worked.

"I thought that if you're sitting English, everyone's sitting the same English - but that's not the case… There is too much credit counting and bringing together of sometimes quite ad hoc standards because we moved to the standards-based assessment that are not setting students up for success."

But the new system is not a return to the days of single three-hour exams measuring a students' learning for the year, nor will it be graded, forcing a certain percentage of students to fail.

"I think it's really important to know that this is still standards-based assessment," Post Primary Teachers' Association president Chris Abercrombie told Nine to Noon.

"So the real heart of NCEA, that standards base, is still there, which is really good to see because we know that helps students show their knowledge and understanding in various forms, so that's really good to see that that still exists…

"Because it's all standards-based assessment… the 'bell curve' is not going to be put into the marking. So it's not gonna change that aspect fundamentally, which is really good."

The new system is expected to be implemented one year at a time, so students will not be doing a mix of NCEA and and the new qualifications.

Abercrombie said implementing it in a planned, robust and well-resourced way would be key to its success.

"There's a significant concern about this because we know because of the poor implementation plan of Level 1, it did create a lot of stress on schools and teachers and principals to do that.

"So, as I say, implementation is going to be absolutely key. We cannot repeat the mistakes made during the implementation of the new Level 1, and the co-requisites literacy and numeracy."

Secondary Principals Association president Louise Anaru said the government must give teachers the training, resources and time they needed to introduce the overhaul.

"The staging and sequencing of the changes are really important, and I can see that there is a timeline in place. Our schools will need to be resourced sufficiently, and they also need adequate time to implement all of the changes."

Anaru said the overhaul retained the best parts of NCEA.

Abercrombie noted that so far, principals had been consulted on the changes - but not teachers.

"We need to make sure the sector really is listened to in this and so, hopefully the consultation period will allow that to happen."

He also noted teachers "asked to do a lot of work for a 1 percent" pay increase, so "some more movement on the negotiation table" would be expected from the government.

Consultation closes on 15 September.

Students who will miss out on the new qualifications should not be worried, Abercrombie said.

"[NCEA] will still be recognised at universities. We have students using their NCEA grads to attend universities all around the world. We've had 20 years of people being lawyers and doctors and builders and plumbers and nurses and everything in between, based on their NCEA results…

"It's a very valid assessment, and they'll be able to reach their goals whatever they want to with that."

Stanford agreed, saying her kids were doing NCEA - even her son, who had a choice between that and the alternative International Baccalaureate programme.

"It is a good qualification. Children still get into universities around the world with this qualification. We can make it so much better. There is a lack of consistency, but my message to parents who are still going through NCEA like me, you can still rely on NCEA. It's a good qualification, but we need to look to the future and be more ambitious for our kids, and that's what I'm doing."

Claire Amos, president of the Auckland Secondary Principals' Association and principal of Albany Senior High School, told Midday Report aside from replacing Level 1, the changes felt "a little bit like window dressing".

She feared there would be a narrowing of the current 67 subjects schools could choose to offer.

"It does look like it will be less flexible, with a focus on whole subjects rather than at present, we could actually put together a whole lot of achievement standards and unit standards to make up a total of 60 credits for students - and in some schools, that may not be just made up of four or five subjects."

She said rather than being dismissed as a "patchwork" qualification, NCEA Levels 1 and 2 should be seen as a "diverse definitions of success".

Amos was also concerned with the discussion document's mention of possibly raising the school leaving age from 16 to 17.

"On paper, that sounds great. But if you've got young people who don't see themselves in the qualification framework that's on offer, we're actually going to be managing these disengaged learners."

'Generation of children being used as guinea pigs'

Opposition parties warned the overhauled risked throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Labour education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said NCEA was not perfect, but changes must be based on evidence and proper sector consultation.

"People are reading the consultation document and asking questions like, what will this mean for the subjects? What subjects are going to be offered? How will they be weighted?

"There's those questions that are unanswered and families are looking for and needing certainty for their children. What we don't want to see is these rushed overhauls and a generation of children being used as guinea pigs for things that have failed in the past, like national standards."

Green Party education spokesperson Lawrence Xu-Nan said the proposals risked turning back the clock on decades of progress, with a return to a one-size-fits-alls rigid approach.

"NCEA definitely has its strengths. It's a well-designed, inclusive and flexible qualification and it is an internationally recognised qualification. Chucking it all out isn't going to address the real problems, which are policy instability and under-resourcing of education."

He said there was a lot of "engineered fear" that the NCEA system could be gamed.

"By and large if you're talking to students and teachers, that doesn't happen as commonly as people think it does. There are areas of NCEA that need to be rejigged, but not to the extent of what we are seeing in the announcement today, which is a complete overhaul."

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