Merit seen in NCEA replacement
Wakatipu High's principal welcomes aspects of what the government's aiming to achieve by scrapping NCEA qualifications, but doesn't believe the present system was broken.
Education Minister Erica Stanford this week announced it's replacing NCEA, from 2028, with a Level 1 foundation test in literacy and numeracy and, in years 12 and 13, with the New Zealand Certificate of Education and NZ Advanced Certificate of Education, respectively, from 2029 and 2030.
"I think the current NCEA system does serve our students well with their aspirations andpathways," Oded Nathan says.
He's still boning up on all the details, "but the changes seem to align pretty well with what we're currently doing".
A feature of NCEA has been more internal assessment than external assessment, to the extent many students don't even sit external exams.
"We like the increased focus on external examinations — that's something we've been doing at the school — while also having an element of internal assessment."
Nathan says they already focus on younger students' literacy and numeracy.
Next year they'll also pilot for year 10s the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, then into year 11s in 2027, "just to make sure there's an element of a qualification and that rigour at that junior year".
He accepts NCEA is "a complex system to understand, there's a lot of nuance to it, it offers that flexibility".
But under the new system there'll again be marks from 0 to 100 and grades from A to E.
"I appreciate this should be easier for parents and employers to help them understand," Nathan says.
The government's put its changes out for consultation till September 1.
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