Students doing exams at Solway College. Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen
Consultation on the government's proposed replacement of the NCEA school qualification closes today, with principals divided on the merits of the plan.
Those spoken to by RNZ said the shift to a system of two certificates at Years 12 and 13 and study of full subjects with some designed by trades-training bodies was either overdue or a poorly-thought-out mistake.
The proposal prompted 121 principals to sign an open letter opposing it and a recent Secondary Principals Association survey indicated many and possibly most principals disagreed with key parts of the plan.
But a group of 64 principals last week published a letter supporting the change.
Makoura College principal Simon Fuller. Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen
In Masterton, Makoura College principal Simon Fuller said there was too little detail for meaningful consultation and he disagreed with the underlying premise for change.
"I disagree with this notion that NCEA is broken and that our kids are coming out and can't compete on the world stage and can't get the jobs that they want," he said.
"NCEA definitely needs to be improved and we're always looking to improve but New Zealanders with NCEA have gone out and tackled the world."
Fuller signed the open letter opposing the proposal.
He said the plan would prevent Makoura from offering subjects in a way that enabled students to follow their interests.
"We rejigged our curriculum at the end of 2023, start of 2024, to have students be able to engage deeply but also with breadth around their interests," he said.
"From what I can see in the proposal none of our current structures would be able to exist."
Students at Makoura College Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen
Fuller said the school's approach was not about credit-counting to the easiest path to a qualification.
"We've got some excellent NCEA results across levels two and three and our Māori and Pasifica students are our highest performing cohort and that's not because we cobbled together bulk credits," he said.
"It's because they're engaged in quality learning and I've got great staff that worked really really hard," he said.
A Cabinet paper said the proposed change would initially cause a dip in achievement among Māori, Pacific and neurodiverse students.
Fuller said that basically described most of his school and he questioned how long the drop in achievement would last.
"Achievement results will according to the cabinet paper increase, but what is the time period. That's not specified. It just talks about short-term. Is short-term three years, five years I mean what price do you put on one kid 's education let alone five, six, seven generations of students coming through a qualification," he said.
Academic rigour
At Solway College, a Presbyterian integrated Masterton boarding school for girls, principal Janine Tupaea said it was a myth that NCEA did not stretch academic students.
"I'm yet to see a student reach their capacity in what they can achieve academically... it's a myth that we're not setting students up for academic success, because there's definitely the capacity within this model for that to happen," she said.
Tupaea was another who signed the open letter.
She said her school had "an external exam ethos" and while NCEA could be improved, it did not need to be replaced.
Solway College principal Janine Tupaea. Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen
Tupaea said there was nowhere near enough detail for genuine consultation and online meetings with the Education Ministry had not helped.
"Following the open letter the ministry has set up a number of online meetings for the principals and those were designed to reassure principals - they have done anything but," she said.
"The responses that we're getting to any question we ask is they're not in a position to answer that, they don't have that information yet, they haven't had that level of design yet, or they can't release that."
She said the release of the senior subject list just days before consultation closed indicated the government was not being transparent about its plans, or had not fully developed them.
She said the plan also ran counter to government rhetoric about choice and flexibility in education.
"I know that the government had previously campaigned on having choice for education and a more flexible choice for education around their charter schools initiative for example. But from the information that I've managed to obtain from these online meetings it appears to me that they're wanting all schools to be offering exactly the same subjects and delivering them all in the exact same way."
The Education Ministry said it was "committed to supporting meaningful engagement on the proposed changes".
It said it had provided teachers and principals with a factsheet about the changes.
The two-and-a-half page factsheet provided brief response to seven questions about the changes.
Solway College Photo: RNZ / John Gerritsen
Time for change
Otahuhu College principal Neil Watson signed last week's open letter to Education Minister Erica Stanford supporting the proposed change.
He said requiring students to study entire subjects was a good idea.
"The flexibility which is designed in the NCEA system does mean that you can gain credits towards your qualifications for a huge range of activities and subjects," he said.
"So you get students gaining their qualifications under the current system from anything from getting a driver's licence to doing calculus at school, but what that means effectively is that they don't necessarily have a deep understanding of any of their subjects."
"They can pick and choose from various subjects to gain the qualification and the kids are smart - they've always worked out the best way and the easiest way to get the qualification. So I think by doing a subject-based approach that's going to lift achievement."
Watson said the qualification was not as good for Māori and Pacific students as people thought.
"It's clear that NCEA hasn't improved the equity outcomes for Māori, Pasifika and lower socio-economic groups. There's been a consistent 20 percentage point gap between the outcomes for those groups and the average population and interestingly enough, that's roughly the same gap there was 40 years ago in 1985," he said.
Watson said Artificial Intelligence was making internal assessment increasingly difficult to verify and a greater use of exams would make for a more rigourous qualification.
"What we find to be honest is that the more rigourous our programmes are the better the kids do. If we look at Otahuhu College in the last 10 years, the number of kids gaining University Entrances almost doubled in that time, and a lot of that's done through obviously good quality teaching and and great family support, but also because the programmes have become more rigourous," he said.
Whangaparāoa College principal Steve McCracken was on the Principals Advisory Group that informed the proposed change and signed the letter supporting it.
He said the school reintroduced NCEA level 1 as a whole-school qualification after pressure from students who wanted it as preparation for levels 2 and 3.
If the change went ahead, level 1 would be replaced by a foundation certificate in literacy and numeracy.
McCracken said getting rid of the Year 11 qualification and replacing NCEA at levels two and three was the right thing to do.
"NCEA's greatest strength is also, from my perspective, its greatest weakness and that is its flexibility." he said.
McCracken said the new qualification would ensure students in different parts of the country received a nationally-coherent education.
He said making Industry Skills Boards rather than the Education Ministry responsible for vocational subjects would raise the status of those subjects.
McCracken said most school staff agreed with the need for change, but opinions were mixed on what that change should be.
"I don't think anyone is questioning the need for a revision of what the current assessment system is in terms of improving credibility and making sure that things are done on behalf of students that give us the best possible outcomes," he said.
"My personal perspective is that this proposal does add weight and strengthen the qualification system."
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