Latest news with #NationalCertificateofEducationalAchievement
Straits Times
8 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
‘Disastrous, useless': New Zealand to overhaul high school qualification to lift falling standards
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Headmaster of privately-run Scots College Graeme Yule welcomed the reforms for adding more rigour and competition into the system. – Disastrous, terrible and useless. This is how Dr Jamie Beaton, co-founder of consultancy Crimson Education, described New Zealand's high school national qualification, which has been put on the chopping block by the Education Minister recently. Dr Beaton, who has 11 degrees from top universities around the world including Harvard and Oxford, did not hold back as he described to The Straits Times how grade inflation and dependence on internal assessments had made 'school easy' and the qualification 'fairly worthless' on the world stage. The chief executive of Crimson Education, which helps high school students from New Zealand and other countries, including Singapore, secure places at the world's top universities, has long viewed the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) as putting local students at a disadvantage. It has been the main qualification for high school students since 2002. NCEA was designed to be flexible and standards-based, catering to both academic and vocational pathways , including trades, hospitality and tourism . Each standard represents a specific set of skills and knowledge, and students earn credits when they achieve those standards. When they accumulate enough credits, they will earn an NCEA certificate or endorsement. Both internal assessments and external exams contribute to students' final grades. 'We do send plenty of NCEA students abroad, but it is fundamentally a major disadvantage,' said Dr Beaton , adding that it is little surprise that leading Kiwi schools offer their students the Cambridge A-Level exam or the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. CEO of Crimson Education Jamie Beaton, who has 11 degrees from top universities globally, described NCEA as a major disadvantage when applying for universities overseas. PHOTO: CRIMSON EDUCATION He urged a return to robust, standardised external examinations to bring the average New Zealand student 'close to being globally competitive' and stop the slide in the country's university standards over the years. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 18 persons nabbed and 82 vapes seized in HSA ops in Raffles Place and Haji Lane Singapore 3 Sengkang Green Primary pupils suspended for bullying classmate, with 1 of them caned: MOE Singapore Woman trapped between train doors: Judge rules SBS Transit '100% responsible' Singapore Religion growing in importance for Singaporeans: IPS study Life Record number of arts patrons in 2024, but overall donation dips to $45.74m Life 'Loss that's irreplaceable': Local film-makers mourn closure of Singapore indie cinema The Projector Singapore Nearly 2 years' jail, caning for man caught with at least 100 sexually explicit videos of children Singapore Grab users in Singapore shocked by fares of over $1,000 due to display glitch Addressing the mounting concerns about NCEA's credibility, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford announced on Aug 4 sweeping reforms to the national qualification. Under the plan, NCEA will be replaced by a more traditional subject-based qualification for Years 11 to 13 (ages 15 to 18). Students would study five core subjects per year, with learning assessed mainly through national external examinations in Years 12 and 13. This marks a big shift away from NCEA's current credit-based model where students take a mix of internal assessments, projects and exams. The reforms aim to address the longstanding criticism that NCEA is too fragmented and inconsistent, allowing students to 'credit shop' by picking easier assessments to pass. Ms Stanford said: 'I didn't know why you can get credits for having a part-time job or filling in forms, and I didn't understand why kids say that they don't need to go to exams or participate in chunks of their learning because they already have enough credits.' The new system will also introduce an A-to-E grading scale from zero to 100, eliminating the current grading of 'unachieved, achieved, merit and excellence'. The government hopes the new grading would be easier to understand for parents, employers and overseas universities. The reforms, under consultation until mid-September, are set for a phased roll-out from 2028 to 2030. The new curriculum will be taught from 2026 and will affect students entering Year 9 that year. Since coming to power in late 2023, the coalition government led by the National Party has made lifting educational standards its education priority amid concerns over declining achievement statistics. It has introduced new mathematics and English curricula and made teaching structured literacy skills compulsory in primary schools. It has also stopped building open-layout classrooms as they were too noisy and distracting for children. Despite these changes, concerns remain about student outcomes at the high school level. New Zealand high schoolers recorded their worst-ever results in the last Programme for International Student Assessment released in December 2023, including a significant 15-point drop in maths score. The international study, conducted every three years by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, placed Singapore at the top of the league among 81 countries in maths, science and reading. New Zealand ranked 10th in reading, 11th in science and 23rd in maths. In addition, the latest school-leaver data in New Zealand also underscores the urgency for reform. Despite a slight improvement in 2024, achievement levels have been declining since 2020, with only 55.5 per cent leaving school with an NCEA Level 3 qualification (equivalent to A-level) in 2024. Mr Graeme Yule, headmaster of Scots College in Wellington, told ST that under the current system, many students skip exams and some schools stop their students from taking external exams to increase their pass rate. Scots College is a private school that offers both NCEA and IB programmes. Welcoming the reforms, Mr Yule said: 'I like the fact they are adding more rigour. I like the fact that students are going to have to sit some comparable exams so we can compare students. I like the fact that there is some competitiveness in the system.' Parent Ho Li Ling, a 44-year-old finance professional, agreed that credit counting under NCEA has been confusing. She has heard from her daughters of classmates choosing easier subjects to earn credits, and even of students who had attained enough credits by Year 12 that they spent their final year 'hanging around' without needing to complete further assessments or exams. 'NCEA feels like a fake comfort zone, misleading students to think life is about choosing an easy path,' she said. Universities New Zealand, the peak body for the country's eight universities, and the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) are among stakeholders that have voiced support for the changes in high school education . EMA advocacy and stakeholder engagement lead Joanna Hall described the switch to internationally benchmarked qualifications as 'promising'. She added that 'we have consistent feedback from our members that school-leavers are not work-ready, citing low levels of communication, digital literacy and fundamental reading and maths skills'. Universities NZ chief executive Chris Whelan said the changes appeared to address concerns about NCEA's lack of focus in developing deep knowledge and critical thinking needed to prepare students for university. But he hopes to see more details of the new programme. 'We don't yet know what those subjects will be, or how they will relate to letting students know they are ready for entry into university studies.' Not everyone agrees that the changes are the best way forward. Calling the overhaul 'a return to the factory model and a big step backwards', the principal of state-funded Wellington High School, Mr Dominic Killalea, warned that 'it risks alienating so many learners who thrive in the current system'. In his message to parents, which he shared with ST, Mr Killalea defended internal assessments, saying they allow students to demonstrate their depth of knowledge beyond a three-hour pen-and-paper exam. He noted that the strength of NCEA lies in its flexibility to combine standards and create courses that are more appealing to students than some traditional subjects, or that prepare them for pathways beyond school. 'Narrowing curriculum implies a hierarchy of knowledge and risks marginalising areas such as the arts,' he said. Jordan Turner, 17, who is in Year 12 in 2025 , disagreed with the views that NCEA is broken or confusing. 'I understand why people say NCEA is too easy compared with A levels or IB, as it sounds like the workload and expectations aren't the same. However, I'm not complaining because it makes balancing school, extracurriculars and life in general more manageable,' he said. Parent and homemaker Bai Ling, 50, who has two school-going daughters, is sceptical that the reforms will deliver their goals. 'Are the teachers prepared enough to step up to the task? Without a concrete curriculum to show, how can teachers deliver effectively?' she asked. Mr Chris Abercrombie, president of the Post Primary Teachers' Association – which represents more than 25,000 secondary teachers – said the proposed changes have been talked about in recent years but have not been implemented or resourced adequately. 'The lack of adequate support for (NCEA), and political flip-flopping… mean teachers are left trying to fill the gaps. We need stability and certainty,' he said in a media statement. While the parents Mr Yule spoke to are supportive of the changes to reverse the decline in educational standards , he said they are concerned about the impact on their children, particularly in the interim period. This may push them to choose IB because of the uncertainty. 'There is no guarantee that this government will even be in power when those changes come. We could have a change of government, and we could have more uncertainty over the next few years,' Mr Yule added.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
More detail needed on NCEA change
The big bang announcement this week about the reformation of secondary school qualifications was warmly received by many, but some are questioning the lack of detail. Before the news release about the future of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), Education minister Erica Stanford and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon were clear any change would not be tinkering, but they also said all options were on the table. That is not quite the way it looks. A discussion document out for consultation over the next six weeks does not suggest all options are on the table. Rather, that the main decisions on what to do have been made and anything which happens now will just be tweaking. Those fed up with trying to understand the 20-year-old qualification with its plethora of achievement and unit standards and mix of internal and external assessment, and who wondered how well it was serving pupils and the wider community, may just be pleased something is being done. The NCEA was originally brought in to address the lack of flexibility in the old School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate and Bursary set-up and too much emphasis on external examinations, a system which set up many pupils to fail. However, there have been longstanding concerns NCEA allowed too much flexibility, with some subjects not being covered fully by pupils; that the pick 'n mix of standards made qualifications incoherent and incomprehensible; that there was inconsistency between external and internal assessments; and too many teenagers were avoiding external assessment. The discussion document setting out the programme for change to the new government says pupils who are currently Year 9 in 2025 will continue to receive secondary school learning under the old curriculum and will be assessed under NCEA Levels 1, 2, and 3. The changes, which will be phased in over the next five years, will replace NCEA with a Foundational Award in Year 11 concentrating on numeracy and literacy, a New Zealand Certificate of Education in year 12 and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education in Year 13. Percentage pass rates and A, B, C, D grades are back for the year 12 and 13 qualifications and pupils working at this level will also have to take a minimum of five subjects and pass four of them to gain the qualification. Internal and external assessments will apply. The discussion document also proposes working with industry to integrate Vocational Education and Training subjects into the senior qualifications, involving "using Industry Skills Boards (or others)" to help shape such learning, but the thinking on this does not seem well advanced. This will also mean the current 11,000 skills and unit standards available under NCEA will be reduced. The plan is that the skills boards can take the best of these, and create new ones, to create packages "highly relevant to industry and workforce and provide pathways towards tertiary qualifications". This may not suit all of the pupils who have previously relied on unit standards to gain qualifications and there are fears the loss of flexibility could go too far, disadvantaging some pupils. While Ms Stanford has been working with a 13-strong professional advisory group comprising current and former principals described as having technical expertise and deep knowledge of the sector, the wider teaching fraternity might have expected to be involved before now. The government's relationship with the post- primary workforce is not in a great place, with its previous pay equity claim being scuppered by the recent law change, and a miserly pay proposal on the table. Ms Stanford will need to take teachers with her in what looks likely to be a hectic few years where they will be coming to grips with a new curriculum while they are still assessing against the old one. Already it seems the introduction of the refreshed curriculum is going to be slower than previously indicated, and there are concerns it will be hard for teachers to comment on the new assessment set-up without that work completed. Nobody would doubt Ms Stanford's passion and enthusiasm, and her ability to get things done, but there is not enough detailed information yet to give these changes an A grade.
NZ Herald
13-08-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
NCEA's demise is a lesson in failed educational policy
New Zealand students ranked above the OECD average in maths, reading and science literacy in the 2022 Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) report. But there has been a decline in scores across all three subjects in the last 20 years. We should not move on from the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) without asking how it happened and why we persisted with a scheme so obviously flawed. If I tell you Trevor Mallard was the Minister of Education in 2002 when the NCEA was implemented, you may think no further explanation is needed. When he was Speaker of the House, Mallard responded to protesters coming to Parliament by turning on the sprinklers and playing Barry Manilow songs over the public address system. But, in fairness, the NCEA was not his idea. I was in Parliament when it was promoted. It was his associate minister, Steve Maharey, by profession a sociology lecturer, who drove it through. Maharey was a true believer in 'cognitive learning', what he called 'personalised learning', more commonly known as 'pupil-led learning': the notion that children learn by discovering knowledge for themselves rather than being directly taught. We do learn from experience and finding out information is an important skill. But to master any worthwhile subject, we must first be taught essential foundation knowledge. A simple example: to write coherently, one must know grammar. You cannot do chemistry without being taught the periodic table, or mathematics without learning times tables. The NCEA allowed pupils to choose to skip learning challenging content essential for subject knowledge in favour of collecting soft credits. It is also unfair to blame only Maharey. In the British comedy Yes Minister, politicians come and go while the real power lies with senior civil servants. So too in New Zealand. The NCEA was the creation of senior bureaucrats in the Ministry of Education. It is a department that has promoted a string of fads, from open-plan classrooms, 'look-and-guess' reading and that built schools so badly designed they have had to be demolished. The ministry has created a school system where absenteeism is rife. Really big mistakes are usually made by clever people. Stupid people are rarely able to make a big mistake. Those promoting pupil-led learning were clever, articulate and convinced that they knew best. What they claimed is superficially attractive. Rote learning can crush creativity, but the alternative they imposed was worse. Act MP Deborah Coddington summed up our view at the time: 'One of the most dangerous experiments ever foisted on New Zealand children.' John Morris, Auckland Grammar headmaster, correctly predicted that the NCEA would mean 'the dumbing-down of academic standards'. Some New Zealand schools have never adopted pupil-led learning, opting for the Cambridge exam instead. National's then education spokesman Sir Bill English warned that if problems weren't fixed, 'NCEA will lose credibility'. This belief that it just needed a few tweaks led the Key Government into continuing with a system that was flawed. The flaws were visible from the start. Students and schools gamed the system. In 2004, Cambridge High School claimed a 100% NCEA pass rate by giving pupils credits for picking up litter. In 2013, nearly 25% of internal assessments were marked incorrectly, yet the credits still counted toward NCEA grades. In 2017 then Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced a review of the NCEA. The Government launched a trial of of new NCEA literacy and numeracy tests in 2022. The results were shocking. More than 40% of students failed at least one test in the June 2023 exams. The Herald has reported that Labour's current education spokeswoman, Willow-Jean Prime, didn't respond to NCEA meeting offers. By contrast, in just 18 months, Education Minister Erica Stanford has announced the end of the NCEA and its replacement with externally marked exams. Critics complain this will mean teachers 'teaching to the test'. Exactly. Exams will result in teacher-led learning. Pupils being taught reading, writing and arithmetic, essential for passing exams. For two decades, NCEA's designers insisted their system was the future. The future has arrived, and it has failed. The real lesson is not just that the NCEA must go, but that the political class must never again be permitted to impose unproven ideology-driven experiments on our children.
Scoop
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Is The End Of NCEA A Step Forward Or A Step Backward For Pasifika?
The end of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) has many in the Pacific education community concerned, as Pasifika achievement continues to lag behind the general population. The NCEA will be gone by 2030, after more than 20 years as New Zealand's official secondary-school qualification. In its place will be a more streamlined system, with marks out of 100, letter grades from A to E, and a requirement to study at least five complete subjects. Education Minister Erica Stanford said that the changes would make study more consistent and in line with the skills and knowledge that society most values. However, Post-Primary Teachers'Association's Pasifika representative Angela Maisiri told RNZ Pacific that the proposed changes could be used to exclude students in marginalised communities. "We are concerned that the proposed changes to the secondary school qualifications signal a shift toward a narrowed, standardised, and monocultural approach to curriculum and assessment. "This shift could undermine the aspirations and achievement of Pasifika students and their communities." Meanwhile, Ōtāhuhu High School principal Neil Watson, whose school has a large Pasifika population, was happy to see NCEA put to rest. Watson said that in its 20-year history, NCEA had never worked for Pasifika students, as evidenced by lagging achievement rates. "I think it's a myth that NCEA has benefited Pacific, Māori or low socio-economic students. If it has, why hasn't that gap been closed?" Watson believes that the most important thing when it comes to boosting Pasifika achievement is improving teaching quality. To that end, he said that his staff are optimistic about the changes. "We've all had experiences of our own when we were in school, when we had those fantastic teachers that have inspired us to go on to do what we do in our careers... we need to get more people into teaching that can light the fire." "It's been foreshadowed for a while." Maisiri said the increased emphasis on external assessments, as well as the hardened english-maths requirements in Year 11, could risk strengthening inequality without measures to accommodate unique cultural needs. "There is a continuing absence of Pasifika perspectives, values, and languages within most assessment frameworks and subject content." "Pasifika learners bring knowledge, resilience, service, and creativity. Our assessment system must uplift these strengths, not suppress them." The Ministry of Education told RNZ Pacific that the upcoming consultation period will provide the Pacific education community a chance to outline how the changes would impact them. It also confirmed that Niue, the Cook Islands and Tokelau - all of which used NCEA - were consulted on the changes before the announcement.
The Spinoff
06-08-2025
- Politics
- The Spinoff
Gone By Lunchtime: Three Gen Xers assess the expulsion of NCEA
Plus: Everything is fine for Luxon apart from the butter, Trump, unemployment, netball, etc. Twenty-three years after its introduction, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement is headed for the shredder, with an overhaul of the qualification system laid out by Erica Stanford, the minister for education, on Monday. The changes include a greater emphasis on external assessment and core subjects of maths and English, a pair of new certificate programmes for years 12 and 13, and the resurgence of an A-E letter grade system. In a new episode of the Spinoff politics podcast Gone By Lunchtime, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire discuss what looks like a return to something more like the system they experienced back in the olden times. Does this look like the right balance between loosey-goosey and rigid one-size-fits-all-ness? Is six weeks really sufficient time to get feedback from the sector, students and parents? And why not bring back third to seventh form, while we're at it? Also on the podcast this week: is the removal of voting rights for those who enrol in the fortnight before an election a necessary measure to limit the 'strain on the system', a welcome kick up the backside for the dropkicks, dipshits and deadbeats of New Zealand (eg Ben Thomas) or a troubling disenfranchisement of a particular group of people. Plus: Christopher Luxon took a short and sharp mindset into the National Party conference on the weekend. He arrived in Christchurch amid a blur of bleak headlines, focused mostly on an economic mood epitomised by butter, netball crowds, abrupt Trump tariffs, unemployment numbers, and all that. On the cost of living and the economy more broadly, just how is the getting back on track going? Follow Gone By Lunchtime on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
