Mallard's NCEA worse than Shipley thinks

Concerned Teachers P.O. Box 5035 Papanui
Media Statement

Sunday 26 November 2000

Attention: Education/Political Reporters

Mallard's NCEA Worse Than Shipley Thinks

"Concerned Teachers is pleased that the National Party leader Jenny Shipley is now publicly attacking the replacement for School Cert (the NCEA) as the dumb award it is," said Concerned Teachers spokesperson Peter Calvert. Mr Calvert was commenting on Rt Hon Jenny Shipley's major speech: Our Prosperity, Our People, Our Future made on 24 November 2000.

"Mrs Shipley is correct in saying that Labour has dumbed down awards by not giving students the percent or mark they actually get in their exams for the NCEA," said Mr Calvert. "However she is wrong about how bad this effect is," said Mr Calvert.

"Mrs Shipley stated in her speech - 'Instead, performance will be squeezed into one of three bands - Credit, Merit and Excellence. It will mean that someone who gets 30% will get a credit and someone with 76% will be given an excellence grade'. But this is wrong," said Mr Calvert.

"In fact an employer looking at a grade of Credit - and that is all the information they will have without marks or percentiles - could be looking at a student who scored anywhere between 30 and 74%," said Mr Calvert. "This is incredibly misleading."

"A 30% candidate can often barely read and write, while a 74% candidate has a pretty good understanding of the subject - yet they will get the same grade (credit). The merit grade is not as misleading as it contains students who got between 75% and 90%, and excellence over 90%. But marks are still far better."

"National has at last spoken out for the guinea pigs in the new qualifications system our students. But this is just one problem in a system riddled with serious flaws," said Mr Calvert.

For More information contact: Peter Calvert 021 2111 825

E-mail ConcernedTeachers@xtra.co.nz Website www.concernedteachers.com

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