NCEA changes should benefit students

Media Release
29 May 2007

NCEA changes should benefit students

NCEA changes announced today include some welcome design and implementation improvements which will benefit students and teachers, PPTA president Robin Duff said today.

“PPTA supports many of the changes, particularly improvements to moderation and the promise to produce more exemplars of student work for both internal and external standards.

“The proposal to endorse students’ certificates at Merit and Excellence levels is also a genuine attempt to encourage more students to aim even higher.”

Mr Duff said PPTA also supported the more comprehensive ‘consistency review’ of unit and achievement standards alongside each other, rather than the current process of reviewing the two types of standards in isolation.

The decision to re-name the Record of Learning as a ‘Record of Achievement’ helped to clarify its difference from the Results Notice that will now show both achievement and non-achievement.

“However, though we understand that the Government sees the reporting of Not Achieved’s as necessary to enhance NCEA’s public credibility, a significant group of teachers may see this as a move from a fundamental principle of standards-based assessment to report only achievement.”

Mr Duff wanted the government to recognise the extra demands NCEA placed on secondary schools and teachers by urgently increasing staffing. He said phasing in the reductions to teacher: student ratios and the extra time for heads of department recommended by the Staffing Review Group “would demonstrate that the government is serious about supporting course and career counselling in schools”.

“PPTA has raised concerns repeatedly about the lack of extra staffing to eliminate large classes so that schools can provide the far more intensive course counselling required by the NCEA.

“The introduction of certificate and subject endorsements requires that teachers have more time to help each student make the best course decisions. Teachers must be provided with this time.”

Mr Duff said he was pleased that the Government now recognised the need for genuine consultation with the secondary sector through the Leaders Forum and the Leaders Forum Qualifications Group.

“A recurring concern among secondary teachers with NCEA changes is that they are left ‘carrying the can’, without sufficient time and professional development to implement changes.

“By engaging the sector, the Government can ensure that the changes are both in students’ best interests and that the impact of the changes on teachers is recognised and addressed.”

ENDS

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