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Newsroom
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The Sunday Poem, by Mark Prisco
cat the cat mourns like it feels pain, silently. he doesn't give himself away like a nightingale. talks only when he has to; slinks crevices of what you think when you're not thinking looking out the window. he came to inspect the hole i dug at the end of the day & sniffed it before i filled it up again. he knows death. like me there's a dark spot in him somewhere which he gets used to & forgets. Taken with kind permission from the new anthology Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2025 (Massey University Press, $37) edited by Dr Tracey Slaughter, and available in bookstores nationwide. It's the latest annual of the yearbook founded in 1951 by Louis Johnson and serves as a subjective, sometimes eccentric best-of round-up of new poetry in New Zealand. The 2025 iteration has 141 new poems by 127 poets, including Victor Billot, Fiona Kidman, Damien Levi, Amber Esau, Diane Brown, Michael Steven, and Erik Kennedy, and three winners of its schools' competition, Ellie Zhou, St Andrew's College (Year 11), Jasmine Liu, Rangitoto College (Year 12) and Chloe Morrison-Clarke, Papanui High School (Year 13). The yearbook always shines a light on a featured poet and in 2025 the honour belongs to Hamilton-based Mark Prisco, with 15 poems. Tracey Slaughter describes him as a 'writer who lives and breathes his craft and is willing to work nights at Countdown if it means [he] gets to keep scratching down lines'. In his dazzling review of the Yearbook, Charles Bisley singled out Prisco, writing, 'Prisco's phantasmagoric reveries have stayed in my mind…[his poems] are holding on for dear life.' Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day will take place next Friday, August 22. The full programme of nationwide events includes live performances of poetry and music by David Eggleton and others at Te Puna Creative Hub, Henderson; an open mic night at HB Williams Memorial Library, 34 Bright Street, Gisborne; a poetry and pizza event at Firebird Café, Levin; and an all-star cast led by poetry czar Nick Ascroft will read their own work as well as poems by such as the late Fleur Adcock, Vincent O'Sullivan and Paula Harris at Rongomaraeroa, Te Marae, Level 4, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington. .
NZ Herald
12-08-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
NCEA overhaul explainer: What we know and don't know, and who might fall through the cracks
'The proof will be in the pudding,' says Rangitoto College principal Patrick Gale, who chaired the reform advisory group to the Government. There are a variety of opinions on how that pudding is shaping, and it's still early days; feedback on the proposals is open until September 15, with Cabinet releasing final decisions in November. The idea is that the new system will keep the best of NCEA's flexibility, but with enough structure and prescription to provide confidence about what students have learned for parents, tertiary education providers and employers. But even the discussion document on the proposals says it's likely student achievement will dip during the transition, while sector leaders warn an over-correction will result in our most disadvantaged students falling through the cracks. There are concerns pulling back on NCEA's flexibility will favour students from richer backgrounds, while the disadvantaged fall through the cracks. Photo / 123rf How did we get here? NCEA has become so flexible that it's being gamed, damaging its credibility. You can gain Level 2 or 3 with a mash-up of mostly internal assessments across several subjects, for example, and then not show up to the exam at the end of the year. This isn't universal, as Education Minister Erica Stanford stressed last week, and NCEA remains a decent qualification for many students. But after more than two decades, it's still confusing for many parents, employers and tertiary education providers. Briefings to the minister, including from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, warned of a credibility crisis, a lack of coherent vocational education pathways , and an over-reliance on internal assessments. Nearly half of Year 12 students who achieved Level 2 last year did so 'without engaging in a full programme of coherent subject-based learning', while a third of Year 12 and 13 students with Level 2 or 3 relied on unit standards from 'disparate' subjects. The Government wants to curb this flexibility in exchange for more structure and prescription, with a subject score out of 100 that is more easily understood. Instead of NCEA Level 1, students will work towards a Foundational Skills Award in Year 11, a NZ Certificate of Education (NZCE) in Year 12, and a NZ Advanced Certificate of Education (NZACE) in Year 13. Maths and English will be compulsory subjects in Year 11. It's unclear whether the Foundational Skills Award will differ from the current online numeracy and literacy tests. Students will need to pass four out of five subjects to gain NZCE or NZACE. The proposed new record of achievement. Supplied / Ministry of Education How University Entrance accommodates the new qualifications remains to be seen. It currently requires, among other things, a minimum of 14 credits at NCEA Level 3 in each of three approved subjects. 'The proposed system increases that minimum to four subjects to pass, but it is not yet clear what subjects these will be in, which will be one of the things we consider,' University NZ said in a statement. 'University Entrance is a robust indicator of a student's readiness for degree-level standards, and we would expect that to continue under a new system.' Best of both worlds – in theory The flexibility of NCEA, however, is what was – and still is – lauded by some schools. It provided an easier way to reward students for what they'd learned, especially if their preferred way of learning didn't fit neatly into the traditional classroom, or via an end-of-year exam. This was particularly useful for those with special learning needs because of, for example, their dyslexia, ADHD or autism. Assessments were made in a fundamentally fairer way too, with students' work compared to a certain standard. In the old School Certificate-Bursary system, students were compared to each other and their marks were weighted to fit the standard deviation curve. The new system will remain standards-based, though how that will be compatible with a subject score out of 100 is one of the details yet to be worked out. 'A raw number grade, like 54%, doesn't actually show what you understand,' said Post-Primary Teachers Association president Chris Abercrombie. 'The standards base can show, for example, 'Chris is really good at writing essays, he's not very good at graphs'.' PPTA president Chris Abercrombie says the timeframes for replacing NCEA are tight but not impossible. Photo / Supplied It would be ideal to have a high level of detail about what a student knows, as well as an overall score that indicates the student's knowledge of the subject's curriculum. 'We're not entirely sure how exactly it's going to work. A percentage grade and a standards-based assessment kind of don't go together, per se,' Abercrombie said. 'It'll be really interesting to see exactly what it looks like.' Some flexibility, but not too much A key magic trick will be swinging the pendulum towards a more rigid system in a way that retains enough flexibility to benefit those with special learning needs, but not so much that credibility starts to crumble. The chief concern is who will fall through the cracks if the swing is too great. 'If there's an overcorrection, we know it'd be neurodiverse, the low socioeconomic, the students with specific learning needs,' Abercrombie said. 'We don't want that because that was the point of NCEA, to be a bit fairer. We're worried this is potentially an overcorrection, leading to more students leaving school without a qualification.' Special assessment conditions, commonly used for the likes of ADHD students, are being retained, with NZQA looking at ways to strengthen them. Again, what this will eventually look like is still being worked through. A greater emphasis on external assessment, which is being proposed, should make it harder to game the system. The internal-external split is another detail yet to be worked out and is likely to vary subject to subject, including whether an end-of-year exam is suitable. NCEA is thought to make learning easier for the neurodiverse and the new system aims to keep enough flexibility to retain this benefit. Photo / 123rf 'An exam is a good way to assess someone's memory, but it's not necessarily a good way to assess certain skills or certain knowledge,' Abercrombie says. 'Art, for instance, that's often an internally done portfolio that's marked externally. The students work on it during the year and then it's sent off to be marked.' Will more students fail? More failures are obviously not the intent. But if students are passing by gaming the system, and that won't happen so easily in the new system, then fewer students will pass, all other things being equal. The counter to this is that's the point and the new system will remedy the declining credibility of the current set-up. Not that all other things are staying equal. The Government has already moved towards structured literacy and mathematics (though there is contention over the latter's legitimacy), an increase in learning support funding, and refreshed curriculums with a focus on knowledge-rich content (though teacher feedback has seen the timeline for the rollout pushed back). Even if it all goes well, such a radical change is unavoidably disruptive. Educational achievement is 'likely to decline in the short term compared to NCEA' before lifting again, says the discussion document on the proposed changes. There is also concern about creating an inflexible two-tier system, one for academic students and another for vocational pathways. 'We don't want to lock some 13-year-old into a pathway they don't want to be on when they're 17 or 18,' Abercrombie said. Minister of Education Erica Stanford wants to phase out NCEA over five years. Photo / Dean Purcell Is it all too much, too quickly? The proposed timeline is to phase out NCEA over five years, with the current system and the new system – including the old curricula and refreshed curricula – running parallel for some of those years. This is a lot for schools and teachers, on top of the workforce challenges that already exist. The timeline makes sense, said Rangitoto College principal Patrick Gale. 'It saves a double change of adapting the existing system to new curriculum as it rolls through and then adapting once again to a new assessment system, if decided upon. 'Effective resourcing of new curriculum and associated materials is essential. This was not done well with previous NCEA Level 1 adjustments.' Abercrombie says the timeline is 'not impossible, but tight'. 'Teachers are going to be teaching the old curriculum, the new curriculum, the current NCEA and the new qualifications, all at the same time. A lot of the new curricula aren't even due until the end of this year. That doesn't leave a lot of time for feedback. 'That's a lot of work at a time where we've got shortages; we don't have enough subject specialist teachers. 'We just really need the confidence that the ministry and the minister have a clear resourcing and implementation plan for this.' The implementation timeline. Supplied / Ministry of Education Unease over AI marking Last week Stanford hailed the use of AI for marking, which was already in use for literacy and numeracy corequisite exams. Abercrombie said there were potential benefits in reducing teacher workloads, but the general feeling among PPTA members was that AI 'isn't there yet to be able to confidently mark'. As it evolves, he said it should only be used where it made sense, for example in marking a mathematics question rather than an essay about a Shakespeare play. 'There's also another element. Students like having their teacher mark their work and give them feedback. Teaching is about relationships. Hopefully it's not done in a way that is going to undermine that relationship. 'We'd hate to get into a situation where the computer says you've failed.' Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.
RNZ News
05-08-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Watch: AI will aid with NCEA replacement, Education Minister says
Education Minister Erica Stanford has fronted media from her old high school after the government proposed to replace all levels of NCEA . Under the proposal, 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 would and range from A to E. Teachers' unions are cautiously optimistic the changes will work, provided they are implemented and resourced well. Stanford fielded questions at Auckland's Rangitoto College, a school she attended, and her children now go to. Education Minister Erica Stanford visits Rangitoto College, Auckland, 5 August 2025. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel Stanford said the cost of the changes had mostly been budgeted already through previous Budget announcements. She said there is already a reform process in place, which the government is using and shifting across. "There will likely be future budgets when we're looking at the feed pathways, the vocational pathways, we know there will be a little bit there," she said. "But we're gearing up for that right now for next year's Budget." Education Minister Erica Stanford visits Rangitoto College, Auckland, 5 August 2025. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel Stanford said New Zealand will continue to use AI as a marking tool, as it already been used for literacy and numeracy corequisite exams. "We're extraordinarily advanced in terms of the rest of the world," she said. "Many other countries can't even dream of where we're at the moment - digital exams, AI marking." AI marking was as good, if not better than human marking, she said. Stanford said the tool would be crucial to moving away from NCEA Level 1. "You've got to remember we are dropping Level 1 so there is a whole year of internal and external assessments that will go all together," she said. "If we didn't have AI, this is something that probably wouldn't be possible without a massive injection for NZQA. "But we do have AI, it is coming, and it is getting better and better every year ... and I'm confident that will help (teachers) mark quicker." Education Minister Erica Stanford visits Rangitoto College, Auckland, 5 August 2025. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel Stanford hoped the changes would make it easier for students, but also parents to understand the grading of an assessment. "There's a couple ways we're using the word 'standard'. Essentially, the way we want to be using it now is the standard is the curriculum," she said. "Teachers will be very used to marking an assessment, or an essay for example as a mark out of 100 ... it does give a lot more clarity to students on how they can improve, and also to parents really importantly." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
04-08-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
NCEA qualification to be scrapped
The government has announced they are planning to to ditch NCEA and phase in a completely new qualification. NCEA Level One will be abolished and instead students will sit a Foundation Skills test in numeracy and literacy. The New Zealand Certificate of Education and Advanced Certificate of education will replace NCEA levels Two and Three. Students will need to take a minimum of five subjects and pass at least four to get each certificate. Final results will show a mark out of 100 for each subject, along with a corresponding grade, A-E. Chair of the Minister's NCEA Professional Advisory Group and Rangitoto College Principal, Patrick Gale spoke to Lisa Owen. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
24-06-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Immigration surge overwhelming Auckland schools
Rangitoto College on Auckland's North Shore will no longer accept out-of-zone students from next year. Photo: Supplied A rising number of Auckland's leading secondary schools are being overwhelmed by enrolment demand due to a post-pandemic spike in immigration that has fuelled population growth. The principals of Rangitoto College and Mount Albert Grammar School say rising demand is forcing them to turn away out-of-zone students, even those with siblings already enrolled. Enrolment applications for 2026 are set to open at many secondary schools in Auckland in June and July. Rangitoto College on Auckland's North Shore will no longer accept out-of-zone students from next year, citing growing enrolment pressure and limited classroom space. The country's largest secondary school said its current roll of 4105 students had pushed it to absolute capacity. While siblings of enrolled students who lived out of zone had been accommodated in 2025, the school said continued growth made this no longer feasible. Rangitoto College is not alone. Mount Albert Grammar School - Auckland's second-largest secondary school, with approximately 3600 students - has also signalled it is likely to stop accepting out-of-zone students next year, including siblings of current students. "We've signalled for a number of years now that we are heading towards having no out-of-zone enrolments," principal Patrick Drumm said. Drumm said enrollment growth flatlined somewhat during the pandemic, which allowed the school to continue accommodating some out-of-zone students through a ballot system. However, rising demand has forced the school to restrict those places to siblings of current students only in recent years. "So, it's priority for students in the ballot," he said. "But it's looking like that may also not be possible next year." Patrick Drumm, principal of Mount Albert Grammar School Photo: Supplied Drumm said a sharp rise in immigration, as well as families relocating from other parts of New Zealand, had intensified enrolment pressure across Auckland's secondary schools. Net migration in New Zealand most recently peaked in the year ending October 2023, with a gain of almost 130,000, according to Stats NZ. The annual gains have since decreased to less than 30,000 in the year to March, according to the latest data from Stats NZ. He expected in-zone enrolments to remain strong next year, further straining capacity. "Normally, we could judge [enrolment numbers] just by speaking with our local intermediate schools," Drumm said. "They'd tell us the sort of numbers coming through. But, on top of that, we've had strong immigration growth in New Zealand. "Those young people need to go to school. A lot of them are moving into our area, and that's certainly caught us out a little bit." Vaughan Couillault, former president of the Secondary Principals' Association and principal of Papatoetoe High School, said his school had also experienced significant enrolment pressure over the past two years, and now only accepted out-of-zone students who were siblings of current pupils. "We've gone from 1300 to 1800 students in two years," he said. "We've increased by 500 students, which is significant and puts quite a lot of pressure on infrastructure. "We've significantly reduced the number of out-of-zone students we can accept, because we're required to take in-zone students. That's the whole point of zoning - to give people an entitlement to go to their local school." Vaughan Couillault, former president of the Secondary Principals' Association and principal of Papatoetoe High School Photo: Supplied Couillault said soaring immigration and rapid property development were key factors that had driven increased demand for school placements in several Auckland suburbs. "There doesn't seem to be a clear line of sight between immigration - people coming across the border - and the number of kids arriving with them," he said. "And those people need somewhere to live. "In communities like mine, around my school, there are a number of 'one house comes down, six go up in its place'. "Those quarter-acre or eighth-acre sections, which my community was full of, are being knocked down and replaced with two-up, one-down apartments." Couillault said families should prioritize enrolling their children in local schools. "I don't actually see it as a big drama," he said. "All of those people who are out of zone for my school are in zone for another school down the road. "They're entitled to go to their local school. They're not missing out on anything. "We have a world-class education system, and going to your local school is fine." Some principals also raised concern about potential enrolment fraud as pressure on school placements continued to increase. At Auckland's Macleans College, nine students were reportedly removed last year after it was discovered they had been fraudulently enrolled. Steven Hargreaves, principal of Macleans College, said the school made the decision three years ago to accept only out-of-zone students who were siblings of current students. "We experienced a surge in enrolments after Covid," he said. "We had to make a decision quite quickly - one we didn't want to make - and that was not accept enrolments from past siblings and children of past students. "It was a difficult decision, but our roll growth was so fast that we had to not accept enrollments from those categories." Macleans College principal Steven Hargreaves stands alongside international students from Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Russia, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil. Photo: Macleans College/Supplied Hargreaves said enrolment fraud was likely to persist as pressure on the school roll continued to mount. "We have a lot of families who want to get into Macleans," he said. "But the Macleans zone is expensive. "We know we'll have to investigate suspicious enrolments in future. And, sadly, we'll probably have to annul those enrolments in future as well. "Unfortunately, the risk of fraud might go up as it becomes more difficult to enroll," he said. Hargreaves said the school required families to provide proof of address and sign a statutory declaration confirming they lived within the school zone in an effort to reduce enrolment fraud. However, he said the key to addressing enrolment pressure in the long term was expanding school campuses and increasing capacity. He said the school board had funded nine new classrooms to accommodate rapid roll growth, but said more space would be needed. "We're just starting the process of talking to the Ministry of Education to build the classrooms we are entitled to," he said. "We're about 3000 [students] now, and there are lots of schools about our size. "What we can do is knock down a one-story building and replace it with a two- or three-story building. That will be what happens on our campus in future." Nine students were removed from Auckland's Macleans College last year after it was discovered they had been fraudulently enrolled. Photo: RNZ Drumm said Mount Albert Grammar School also required families to sign a statutory declaration and provide three separate documents as proof of residence within the school zone. "It's just not practical for us to go door-knocking or visit houses," he said. "We just cannot afford, or do not get funded to have any high-level investigative approaches across the whole student population. It's just too big." Drumm agreed more needed to be done to address the mounting pressure on schools, including the construction of additional classrooms - and potentially new schools - particularly in central Auckland, where immigrant populations were densest. He also highlighted the need for broader curriculum and assessment reform across New Zealand's education system to build public confidence in the quality of local schools. "Immigrant families are very educationally savvy," he said. "Their sons and daughters have been part of rigorous education and qualification systems overseas. "I suppose families want to travel to another school because they're not confident that they can get the qualification and the quality of education that they need out of [their local] school. "That's something we need to respond to. Immigration has been part of New Zealand's story, and we've got to ensure our students can compete internationally. "We're going to offer something which really suits what our community wants." Sean Teddy, leader of operations and integration at the Ministry of Education, said several regions nationwide faced significant enrolment pressure. High-growth school catchment areas included Ormiston, Mission Heights, Papakura, Rosehill, Drury, Massey, Hobsonville and Kaipara in Auckland; Papamoa, Piako and Hamilton West in Bay of Plenty and Waikato; and Rolleston, Halswell and the Wakatipu Basin in Canterbury and Otago-Southland. Teddy said the ministry was working with schools experiencing roll pressure to determine the most appropriate responses, including non-property solutions such as introducing new enrolment schemes or amending existing zone boundaries. "In some cases, we may need to provide roll growth classrooms at local schools to meet growth and demand," Teddy said. "Where growth in an area is anticipated to be continuous, sustained and sufficient to sustain another school, and there is a deficit in the ability of the existing schooling network to accommodate the projected growth, then a new school is required." Teddy said enrolment schemes were designed to prevent overcrowding at schools, making sure local students were able to attend schools in their area. Schools can accept out-of-zone enrolments if they have accepted all in-zone students and have available capacity. Schools that do not possess a dedicated enrolment scheme are obliged to accept all students seeking enrolment.
