Massive overhaul of NCEA coming
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NZ Herald
11 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
NCEA overhaul: Wellington student supports changing ‘flawed' education system
'Also, it's very vague in terms of course endorsement. 'Different schools have different standards as part of different courses ... I know for a fact universities don't really value course endorsement.' Brynn Pierce is a Year 12 student at Newlands College and the Youth MP for Andy Foster. Newlands College stopped accrediting students with NCEA Level 1 last year, raising concerns that some would no longer receive any qualification if they chose to leave school after Year 11. Yet the introduction of the Foundational Skills Award fixes that, Pierce said. 'One of the massive challenges with NCEA at the moment is it tries to be a jack of all trades. It's our qualification for seeing if you do well in school. 'Hopefully the new standard and the new system, with a little more structure, will mean that universities have a more standardised qualification to go by in each individual subject.' Pierce praised the revised Year 11 certificate for prioritising 'basic competency in English and maths and the skills that they might need'. However, others' attitudes to the overall reforms have been mixed. 'There is certainly an appetite for it. Some are saying, 'Can it come sooner?' Because they want a standard which they can use overseas, which is trusted in different areas. Wellington student Brynn Pierce has welcomed an overhaul of the "flawed" NCEA curriculum. 'Whilst others are just concerned about passing the year.' Pierce said most people his age would 'agree that NCEA is very, very flawed in its own ways', yet Education Minister Erica Stanford would still have to contend with ensuring the new qualification is flexible enough for all students. The main concern for students has been the curriculum pivoting away from internal assessments. 'I'd be lying if I said that students were happy about the lesser focus on internals. Most students are quite unhappy about it.' In his experience, Pierce said internals were 'very prone to misuse and to misconduct, in particular with AI', which had created irregularities between schools and left teachers providing students with excessive help. 'That's something which simply can't really be avoided and schools aren't really equipped to deal with.' The reforms were an opportunity to create a more structured curriculum that standardised the expectations for students nationally, Pierce said. While the curriculum overhaul won't be implemented until after Pierce leaves school, he was excited about what it offered those younger than him. 'By giving students a greater opportunity to do well in school and by giving them an opportunity to prove their worth, that will actually change a lot of others' pathways for the better,' he said. 'I still care very much about the changes because my little sister will go through it, a lot of my friends will go through it and they deserve a really good quality education.' Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
11 minutes ago
- Otago Daily Times
Teachers optimistic over NCEA changes
Teachers' unions are cautiously optimistic that changes to New Zealand's secondary school qualifications framework will work - provided they are implemented and resourced well. Govt plans to replace NCEA But opposition parties are concerned the "complete overhaul" of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) goes too far. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced that 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 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." 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 RNZ's Nine to Noon programme today. "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 believed 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 1 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 RNZ's 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." 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-all 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."
Scoop
23 minutes ago
- Scoop
Replacing NCEA To Transform Secondary Education
Rt Hon Christopher Luxon Prime Minister Minister of Education The Government is proposing to replace NCEA with new national qualifications that ensure young people have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford say. 'We want every New Zealander to reach their full potential and contribute to a thriving economy— and that starts with our students,' Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. 'The evidence shows NCEA is not consistent and can be hard to navigate. It doesn't always deliver what students and employers need. 'New Zealand's future depends on our young people having the skills to succeed in the modern global economy. We're backing Kiwi kids with a new internationally benchmarked national qualification designed to do exactly that,' Mr Luxon says. 'While NCEA was designed to be flexible, for many students that flexibility has encouraged a focus on simply attaining the qualification. This has come at the cost of developing the critical skills and knowledge they need for clear pathways into future study, training or employment,' Education Minister Erica Stanford says. The proposal includes: Removing NCEA Level 1, requiring students to take English and Mathematics at Year 11, and sit a foundation award (test) in numeracy and literacy. Replacing NCEA Levels 2 and 3 with two new qualifications (The New Zealand Certificate of Education at Year 12 and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education at Year 13). Requiring students to take five subjects and pass at least four to attain each certificate. Marking clearly out of 100 with grades that make sense to parents like A, B, C, D, E. Working with industry to develop better vocational pathways so students are getting the skills relevant to certain career pathways. The new qualification will be underpinned by a new national curriculum for Years 9-13 that will clearly outline what students need to learn in each subject and when, providing more consistency. 'This is about making sure our national qualification opens doors for every young person, whether they're heading into a trade, university, or straight into work. Parents can be assured their kids will get the best possible opportunity to thrive,' Ms Stanford says. 'Our Government's major education reforms are well underway in primary and intermediate. Every student is already taught at least an hour a day of reading, writing, and maths, we've banned cell phones in classrooms, we've introduced a world-leading Maths and English curriculum, mandated structured literacy and maths programmes, equipped teachers and students with high-quality resources, made huge investments into learning support and stopped building open-plan classrooms,' Ms Stanford says. 'It's time to ensure that when students reach secondary school, our national qualification reflects the same high standards and ambition we expect throughout their education,' Ms Stanford says. 'The Government is focused on growing the economy, creating jobs, lifting wages and help Kiwis with the cost of living. Supporting our young people to succeed and develop their skills is a key part of how we do that,' Mr Luxon says. Notes: Consultation is open until 1 September before final decisions are made before the end of the year. Changes are proposed to be phased in from next year, beginning with the new national curriculum in 2026, the Foundational Skills Award in 2028, and the new Certificates of Education in 2029 and 2030 for Years 12 and 13. During the transition period, students will either be assessed through the current NCEA and curriculum or the new qualification and updated curriculum. The full proposal and instructions on how to provide feedback are available here:
