The National Certificate of Educational Achievement will be gone by 2030. File photo. Photo: 123rf
The government's plans to replace the NCEA system are on a tight timeline and will require a lot of support, say teachers.
After more than 20 years as New Zealand's official secondary-school qualification, the government has pulled the pin on the NCEA.
The National Certificate of Educational Achievement will be gone by 2030, replaced by a basic literacy and numeracy award at Year 11, and the Certificate of Education and Advanced Certificate of Education at Years 11 and 12.
'Achieved', 'not achieved', 'merit' and 'excellence' will be replaced by marks out of 100 and letter grades A, B, C, D and E.
The new certificates would be standards-based, like the NCEA is, meaning every student passes if they demonstrate the required knowledge or skills, but they would have to study at least five complete subjects and pass four of them to get their certificate.
This year's Year 8s would be the first cohort through the new system, starting with the foundation award in 2028, which might look a lot like the current NCEA literacy and numeracy tests.
Teachers in a secondary school staffroom told RNZ they were still getting to grips with the announcement - and while some could see potential in the proposed changes, others were more cautious.
"My big concern is around the kids that currently school doesn't really work for them," said one teacher who feared NCEA's flexibility would be lost.
"The students are the ones that get harmed when people are just choosing to try things out," said another.
Several teachers worried the new system would rely to heavily on end-of-year exams.
"I don't think it's an improvement. High-stakes assessment is incredibly stressful for a number of people. The well-being of students has to be considered," said one teacher.
Every teacher RNZ spoke to warned the timeline for introducing a new curriculum next year followed by the new qualification from 2028 through to 2030 was incredibly tight and would require a lot of support.
Several said their curriculums had still not been written and the ministry was asking teachers to work on the new documents for free.
Another pointed out that the government was asking teachers to do a lot of extra work at the same time as it was making low offers in pay talks.
"Teachers got a one percent pay offer from this government and then there's four to five years of new and extra work, incredible amount of work, and those two don't marry up," she said.
Papakura High School principal Simon Craggs said some aspects of the proposed changes 'such as marks out of 100 and stopping students from choosing standards from many different subjects - looked like "a step backwards in time".
Craggs said he was pleased to see the government was looking at a new foundation qualification at Year 11 because the current system of online tests in reading, writing and maths was not working for many students from poor communities.
He said it was critical the government listened to schools that served Māori and Pacific communities, because by 2050 they would account for half the population.
"If we design a qualification that excludes them from success in our society, then we're going to have a real problem on our hands," he said.
"NCEA for all its flaws, it has created a lot more opportunities for people from poorer communities to access qualifications they wouldn't have had access to before."
Wellington Girls College principal Julia Davidson said NCEA needed an overhaul and the proposed changes had potential.
However, she said whatever came next had to be flexible and provide choices for teenagers, especially those who struggled with exams.
"That's the bit that worries me. What happens to your kids who are neuro-diverse, what happens to your kids who have got anxiety issues, what happens to kids who fall apart on the day. There has to be more flexibility," she said.
"I have some concerns about the marking-by-number thing. What's the difference between 54 and 58, what does it really tell you?"
Davidson said the workload for teachers of introducing a new curriculum and a new qualification system would be significant.
"I've had my first teacher tell me that probably they'll leave.. wondering whether this is what they want to do," she said.
Consultation on the proposed qualification changes closes on 1 September.
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